I'm using Windows ME, so I guess you could say it's more or less my own fault ( ), but for the last couple of days I've had a very annoying thing going on with my pc. All of a sudden it's impossible to open the Windows explorer. When I try to, nothing happens, except for my pc slowing down terribly. I have to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to break off some loading process that seems to be going on. The Windows search function is not working either. I tried to find a solution using google, but I couldn't find one. Is there anyone around with a bright idea?

P.S. Maybe I should mention that I had some serious pc troubles recently - it wouldn't start at all - which I've blamed on the CD-RW. After I disconnected the CD-RW the problem seemed fixed. Of course this could be a totally isolated thing.

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe Windows Explorer is trying to load the CD-RW and because it's disconnected, this makes it hang?

It might be something like that. Also, maybe something has gone wrong with the shortcut. What happens if you click on Explorer or Explorer.exe in the Windows directory. Does that make Windows Explorer open? If it does, you could create a new shortcut to it. The shortcut can be made to default to the C:\ view (rather than 'My Documents') by opening the shortcut properties and adding ' /e' after explorer.exe (including the space).

Can you get to it from clicking 'My Computer', right clicking on the C:\ drive and choosing 'Explore'?

It seems as if something is wrong with the shortcut if it tries to look at the D:\ drive.

I am not using W.98 anymore (much the same as ME in this respect I should think) so can't look to see exactly what the shortcut properties are. In XP it is: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e (added the ' /e myself) but this probably is different in ME.

Perhaps someone on W.98 or ME could look at the shortcut properties to see exactly what what it says, then copy and paste it here. You could try copying and pasting this into the shortcut properties: C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,C:\ to see if that works.

Sorry, forgot to mention that it tries to look at the D:\ drive because that's what I told it to do when I partitioned my hard drive. The properties of the shortcut read C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE /n,/e,D:\ and that's worked fine before.

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Can you get to it from clicking 'My Computer', right clicking on the C:\ drive and choosing 'Explore'?

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Nope.

Maybe the explorer file is corrupt? Is it possible to "simply" replace the explorer.exe file?

I'm a bit stuck for ideas now. I think in view of the fact that the shortcut suggestions haven't worked and you don't seem to have any way into the file system to rectify things then I might try replacing Explorer.exe from the installation disk.

Just in case it's needed there's a description here on how it should be done (scroll down the page a bit).

I read here though that ME uses a protection feature for files critical to the operating system. I'd have thought this might include Explorer.exe. But still, something has to be tried to get back in. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a 'slippy slope'* job though.

*Slippery slope job = A job that, once started, goes uncontrollably downhill no matter what you try.