# Windows Explorer Has Stopped Working Vista (fix And Need Your Info)



## 60307a (Apr 16, 2007)

This post is a headsup to everyone running vista and also to gather information to help us contact the correct software distributor to correct their software that is causing this.

From what we have seen so far we believe aol software is causing windows defender to be removed which in turn is causing problems with the GUI (graphical user interface).

If anyone one out there is getting this problem, please reply and let us know *what was installed previously * to it happening and also if you have aol installed.


And here is a fix without *formatting the hard drive*
turn on pc and tap on F8-> select "safe mode with command prompt", login and then in the black command box type in rstrui and then press enter. Now select "choose a different restore point" and select a date before the issue began (hopefully there is one) and click next and then it will restore the computer settings to that day you selected and hopefully the issue never returns.

Please reply if you know what is causing this so my company can investigate it. We do not believe this to be a virus as of yet.

Thanks for your help


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## 60307a (Apr 16, 2007)

Sorry I don't know how to modify my post, so here is my new assessment. Ignore the 1st post.

I think Shockwave Player is the problem!

This post is a headsup to everyone running vista and also to gather information to help us contact the correct software distributor to correct their software that is causing this.

From what I have seen so far we believe shockwave player software is causing windows defender to be removed which in turn is causing problems with the GUI (graphical user interface).

If anyone one out there is getting this problem, please reply and let us know what was installed previously to it happening and also if you have shockwave player installed.

1. uninstall shockwave player, if that doesn't work do the following


And here is a fix without formatting the hard drive
turn on pc and tap on F8-> select "safe mode with command prompt", login and then in the black command box type in rstrui and then press enter. Now select "choose a different restore point" and select a date before the issue began (hopefully there is one) and click next and then it will restore the computer settings to that day you selected and hopefully the issue never returns.

Please reply if you know what is causing this so my company can investigate it. We do not believe this to be a virus as of yet.

Thanks for your help


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

this was a problem during the beta testing,but i thought it was fixed before the public beta was put out
never saw anything in the problem posts at the time saying what was the cause


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## 60307a (Apr 16, 2007)

dai said:


> this was a problem during the beta testing,but i thought it was fixed before the public beta was put out
> never saw anything in the problem posts at the time saying what was the cause



It doesn't happen after the install. It has to be caused by another application of some sort. Hopefully there will be many replies so I can contact the necessary people for a fix.

This is happening on OEM machines with Vista preinstalled, so I know it is not a Beta issue at this point.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

when we were beta testing being as there was a new install roughly every four weeks i only used to load the bare essencials
i know it's not a beta issue as ms sorted what was causing it during the beta,so i would take it as being a faulty application or service being behind it
look at the last post here
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/564766-windows-explorer-has-stopped-working.html


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## 60307a (Apr 16, 2007)

Here is why I believe it to be shockwave player causing it.

I work telephone tech support for HP, and today a customer called in with the EXACT issue as described in the link you told me to read. We had to use windows repair through F8 and open system restore. The customer wasn't positive when the issue began (ofcourse), so we did a system restore to april 16th, when a windows update was installed and that didn't fix it. So then we went back one more restore point that was april 12, listed as shockwave player installed, and that restore resolved the issue.

Now as you know, between the 12th and 16th a lot of changes could've been made. But restore points will generally create themselves whenever there is and update or program installed (to my knowledge anyways).

I really hope to get some responses to get this sorted out.


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Hmmmm I had one in the shop the other day brand new dell, same symptoms with defender shut down, Aol,aim was installed and when I asked the user what lead up to this they said at some point defender stop working and things got progressivly worse. The system was only two weeks old, maybe after aim was installed caused the problem and opened the door for other things. Ended up it had a virus, I did not write it down, should take better notes but I did not full with it and did a reinstall because there was nothing much on the computer


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## 60307a (Apr 16, 2007)

Hmmm....my customer did not have aol, but I didn't ask about AIM. I'll watch out for that though.


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## ReGen (Jan 25, 2009)

It is my believe that "Setpoint" was the root to my problem, I bought a Dell Blue tooth mouse and install the "Setpoint" program which came with the mouse then after that this problem started and it was enough for my to uninstall "Setpoint" in "Programs and features" and this problem went away.

Dell XPS M1530 2,5GHz, 4GB Ram, Vista Home Premium 32-bit


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