Windows Vista No Windows Explorer on Vista Reboot????

[Nzealander]

No Windows Explorer on Vista Reboot???? [ISSUE RESOLVED, SEE INSIDE]

Hi guys here is a real curvy one for you...

A few days ago my Vista started displaying a very strange error. Whenever I boot up the following happens.

1. I get to welcome screen
2. Vista starts loading as normal
3. Black screen with only "My Documents" folder shows.
4. Regardless if I close the folder or not, Vista will continue to load in the background (mouse cursor and keyboard available and I can see the HDD loading) but it will not start "Explorer" and I am left with a black screen.
5. If I use CTRL ALT DEL it will let me go to task manager and start it manually, but obviously this is not ideal.

The only system changes that I have done are:

1. Uninstalled Vistabootpro (never used it for dual booting, Only ever used Vista to boot)
2. Installed updates for Nero Burning
3. Installed Spybot Search and Destroy and deleted a few adware etc.

Now since this I have uninstalled Nero totally, upgraded to Vista Ultimate to see if that sorted the issue but it hasnt also tried to use system restore and go to an earlier point and that has not helped either.

Also for some reason, my Vista Ultimate does not have the "Repair Vista" option when I start it from disc, so I cannot seem to correct the boot from that.

Any ideas as how to solve this will be greatly appriciated!

The NZ-Lander

 

[Unregistered]

I have the exact problem. Please reply back if you are able to solve the issue.
Thanks.

 

[Unregistered]

No Fix for This

I've just repaired two laptops from two different people with this problem. After about 20 hours of work I found no real fix other than to install vista over the old copy or to use the last good restore point.

 

[Nzealander]

That sucks so bad, I definitely dont want to do that.. Anyone here work at MS and want to crack this one for us?

Might suddenly see an outbreak of this problem and re-install sucks...

I have not solved my issue yet either,I have tried installing absolutestartup to see if there was an issue reinstalled vistabootpro did nothing, reinstalled the original boot conf, again, nothing....

 

[Unregistered]

I had exactly the same thing happen to me today after installing Azureus and JRE (or whatever it's called)...

Only solution I could find was to restore to last good restore point.

Paul

 

[Unregistered]

Same problem with a twist

i am havin the exact same problem and am starting explorer manually.i want to reinstall xp back over it becuase vista is not worht the hassle.all i want is a working os.my problem now is my dvd drive is not showing up in explorer and i also cant boot from a disc at startup.i cant find a driver for my dvd drive.it worked two days ago on vista drivers.help

Dell Inspiron 1501,
512 ram,
DVD/CD Rom Drive:TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L632d

My E-mail is [email protected]

 

[Unregistered]

i am having this same problem too! it loads to a black screen with my documents and i have to run explorer.exe to get to my desktop.

my computer came preloaded with vista so i do not even have the disc to reinstall the software, someone help!

 

[Unregistered]

No explorer in Vista = Trojan-Backdoor-Prorat-D

Solved !!
Had the same problem, turned out to be infected with Trojan-Backdoor-Prorat-D.
Nasty bugger, but was able to get it out with Webroot spysweeper.
Heres the removal instructions
Backdoor.Prorat - Symantec.com

Twisted Pear
[email protected]

i am having this same problem too! it loads to a black screen with my documents and i have to run explorer.exe to get to my desktop.

my computer came preloaded with vista so i do not even have the disc to reinstall the software, someone help!

 

[Nzealander]

It Worked!!!!

Mate, I know this sounds really gay but I am so happy I could kiss you!!!

You are 100% correct, however in my case the Virus had obviously been deleted but the antivirus had not restored my shell info.

I would recommend everyone follows the steps provided however I only did the last one which was changing the the Shell script to "C:\windows\explorer.exe"

Once again! Thank you so much! Windows not only starts without me manually entering explorer but it does it way quicker too!

 

[Unregistered]

I did what you all said and removed my trojan. Before I change the values for the Shell in the registry to what you said, I'll repeat my current values to check if they are like yours:
"Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\Config\lsass.exe"
I'm assuming I have to change that to
"Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe"

However, I went to the windows directory, found the file, and when I clicked on it a documents window opened up. Does that mean the trojan changed the explorer file to open up to documents? What happens when you click on the explorer.exe file in the windows directory?
Also, I'm not sure the registry items in the Norton database are correct because Vista uses a different registry setup than XP/Me/98, right? (I've noticed that for example this key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\Explorer\Run] doesn't exist!)

 

[Nzealander]

You are right, and that is exactly what mine said to the "lsass" part rather than what our friend who solved the problem said.

I actually just changed the shell to exactly what I wrote before, did not put "explorer.exe" at the front of it. I dont know about what happens when you open explorer, but my feeling is the virus changed the path.

LSASS is apparently short for
[SIZE=-1]Local Security Authority Subsystem Service[/SIZE]

And is a windows file that can get caught up in the blitz that is viruses, can someone just let us know if it is still okay to change the shell to c:\windows\explorer.exe without putting lsass in somewhere else.

Also one reprocussion of doing this switch is that my internet explorer freezes on every start up now, so obviously something is still wrong in the register, does anyone know where in the register I can correct issues with Internet Explorer? Or will a simple re-install solve it?

I did what you all said and removed my trojan. Before I change the values for the Shell in the registry to what you said, I'll repeat my current values to check if they are like yours:
"Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\Config\lsass.exe"
I'm assuming I have to change that to
"Explorer.exe C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe"

However, I went to the windows directory, found the file, and when I clicked on it a documents window opened up. Does that mean the trojan changed the explorer file to open up to documents? What happens when you click on the explorer.exe file in the windows directory?
Also, I'm not sure the registry items in the Norton database are correct because Vista uses a different registry setup than XP/Me/98, right? (I've noticed that for example this key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Policies\Explorer\Run] doesn't exist!)

 

[Unregistered]

Vista Fix

To fix the problem of windows vista giving you only a black screen and a mydocuments window after loading a profile, try this (I did this in Safe Mode):

CTRL + ALT + DEL keys to open the running processes. Open the file menu and try RUN. Now, type in REGEDIT.EXE to open up the registry and visit this key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

Find: "Shell" and check the value data. If it's anything more than "explorer.exe" change it to "explorer.exe" only.

Once you change the value to that only, reboot your machine and try to login. Hopefully, it's now restored and you have windows vista back.

 

[Unregistered]

Worked for me...

Cheers for the solution, did exactly as you instructed.

Changed the SHELL value to "windows.exe" only.

Checked the processes in Task Manager and "lsass" is running after start up.

All seems to be right with the world

This happened to me immediately after installing Nero 7 and all the relevant updates.

Nero does have some software that integrates with explorer.exe, I was wondering if this contributed to the problem.

I definitely found no virus, nor has any been deleted recently. The other registry keys mentioned were clear or do not exist in Vista.

Anyway - CHEERS!

To fix the problem of windows vista giving you only a black screen and a mydocuments window after loading a profile, try this (I did this in Safe Mode):

CTRL + ALT + DEL keys to open the running processes. Open the file menu and try RUN. Now, type in REGEDIT.EXE to open up the registry and visit this key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

Find: "Shell" and check the value data. If it's anything more than "explorer.exe" change it to "explorer.exe" only.

Once you change the value to that only, reboot your machine and try to login. Hopefully, it's now restored and you have windows vista back.

 

[Unregistered]

Misquote on Previous Post

Meant to say that:

Changed the SHELL value to "explorer.exe" only.

By the way, I reinstalled Nero 7 and the problem happened again.
I reapplied the fix mentioned here and -

Changed the SHELL value to "explorer.exe" only.

Problem fixed and Nero now working properly.

Cheers for the solution, did exactly as you instructed.

Changed the SHELL value to "windows.exe" only.

Checked the processes in Task Manager and "lsass" is running after start up.

All seems to be right with the world

This happened to me immediately after installing Nero 7 and all the relevant updates.

Nero does have some software that integrates with explorer.exe, I was wondering if this contributed to the problem.

I definitely found no virus, nor has any been deleted recently. The other registry keys mentioned were clear or do not exist in Vista.

Anyway - CHEERS!

 

[Unregistered]

Yes Explorer Doesnt Exist In Registry!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the fix, this happened to me after I installed Spybot....

 

[Trendy2]

Hi all! Been searching everywhere for an answer to this issue and found this thread via Google search...
My problem is very similar to this one, yet a bit different. Starts the same - boot laptop (HP DV6500), get to login screen - enter password, then goes to blank screen with just a cursor. I wait a moment then hit CTL-ALT-DEL to get to 'start task manager', kill the explorer.exe process and start a new one. That gets me my desktop back but almost with a limited capacity. Some programs will not open, network availability does not show even though I'm able to browse the internet wirelessly. This all goes on for about 15 - 20 minutes when, all of a sudden, things come back to life and the laptop is perfectly normal again. I've tried system restore to no avail. The registry Winlogon entry for 'shell' reads 'explorer.exe' only as it should, according to similar fixes I've found. I've also messed with startup programs and stopped some unimportant programs from starting but that didn't fix anything either so it's back to normal bootup now. This is on Vista Home Premium on a laptop we've had for only 5 days.

 

[Sam]

Gr8t wrk .. thnks a lot all of you ..
was scratching head since afternoon .. just imagining the pain of re-installing vista.. almighty brought me here .. and hope to get rid of that now problem now

bye n tke care friends..

all the best .. keep it up .

Sam

 

[Unregistered]

i installed nero,

reboot.



BSOD


LOOLOLOLOL, (I just realized that we can still use the term BSOD)(xp was blue screen of death, vista is black screen of death)



Anyways, I am too excited, I just booted up and it works again! thank you for the fix!

 

[Unregistered]

Thank you for your excellent directions! I was able to repair my vista install with ease! You're the man (woman?) Thanks again