Explorer Keeps Crashing!

[layusn1]

OK, I have read almost every "Vista explorer keeps crashing" post I can find but I can't seem to find a solution.

My Vista works fine in safe mode. I uninstalled almost every program I ever installed, I wrote down all of the processes that were running in safe mode and then rebooted and killed each process one by one, replicating the crash inciting event...opening any folder, after killing each process until I was down to the processes that were running in safe mode...and the ones that kept restarting themselves and I can't get the problem fixed.

I am using an HP Pavilion dv9000 running the pre-installed Vista Home Premium. The HP rebuild disk boots up into a repair screen, says it is repairing and if it works it will restart normally, which it does but I still have the same problem. I have run every anti virus/anti virus I could get my hands on (none of which seem to be getting rid of this Virtumonde piece of %*&, which is the least of my worries at this point unless it is causing the crashes).

I am about ready to take my laptop to the shooting range with me or upgrade to Windows XP because I have honestly not seen a single value added by Vista. If anyone has any ideas I would gratefully listen. If not, I think I am shooting this hard drive (really) and restarting with XP or some flavor of **ix and running XP in VMware. Thanks for any thoughts, and making it past my rant.

 

[tonymazz]

Well if it were me...I'd write down all your software....make sure you know the sources....

Format the drive and reinstall to "out-of-the-box" state. You might have a root kit and they can be as severe as staying resident in firmware....

I had anomallies on my laptop and cleared the bugger down to bare bones and rebuilt my computer, kept it off the network ....removed all the bloat-ware, installed a clean copy of antivirus got the updates for the AV then turned on windows updates and got the 75+ updates and then loaded all the rest of my software...system has never run so good....

I would not waste time and just bite-the-bullet and blow the install away and reinstall fresh...

It;s a pain but worth the work...then you know what you have...

T

 

[CreepinJesus]

Killing processes one by one is almost the worst 'debugging' method to use.

Can you post all the details given by the crash, please? Either from the Event Viewer or the error messages... It's probably some sort of add-in causing the problems.

 

[dmex]

I have run every anti virus/anti virus I could get my hands on (none of which seem to be getting rid of this Virtumonde piece of %*&, which is the least of my worries at this point unless it is causing the crashes).

Virtumode is the problem, Its nothing todo with Vista so stop blaming it for the problems...

Did You know that 90% of all security products out there can not fully remove Virtumonde! Its been around since December, 2003 and not one AV program can completely remove it!!!

The Virtumonde software is just one of a family of Trojans it installs on your system.

Use Spybot Search & Destroy to try remove the spyware and if it fails then your last option is to format because Virtumonde is a highly resiliant virus capable of evading removal, capturing all your passwords and it also disables and distroys all software capable of finding the software and Distroys most Vista features and software because of its security features and ability to stop it via UAC.

See this topic for more removal options:
How To Remove Winfixer / Virtumonde / Msevents / Trojan.vundo.b

Next time dont accept the UAC prompt to install that Virtumonde software, dont download keygens or pirated programs and you will be fine

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic18610.html

 

[CreepinJesus]

This might help in tracking down the nasty files:
Adware.VirtuMonde - Symantec.com

 

[Mr GRiM]

Had the same problem on home premium after downloading something I should not have.

I would start up the computer and if I tried to open a folder it would close again and then the desktop icons and explorer bar would go as well a short time latter.

I found that by installing the free trial of Microsoft live one care sorted it right out and had no problems since, i did go back to my free AVG afterward though.

LiveOneCare did not want to load on my 64bit Vista Ultimate only 32bit Home Premium I don't know why that was though.

 

[tonymazz]

Did You know that 90% of all security products out there can not fully remove Virtumonde! Its been around since December, 2003 and not one AV program can completely remove it!!!

This is exactly why I stripped er' down and rebuilt the system from scratch.... problem solved. I had the virtumonde and spysweeper said it quarentined, but machine was acting funky

 

[layusn1]

I have tried S&D several times as well as CCleaner, Ad-aware, spy doctor, and spy hunter...still there. I have tried the Microsoft Live One Care but I can't get it to install. I am glad that some people aren't having problems with Vista but honestly, given the number of complaints against it and problems with it the OS appears to be Windows ME all over again. Please don't take that as me coming into your Vista forum and flaming. If there were any ways to make this system user friendly and stable on my system I might consider changing my opinion but so far, everyone I know (personally, not online, that had Vista has had nothing but problems with it. I suppose we could be a statistical anomaly...time will tell. In the mean time, if there are specific logs/reports you would like to see from my system I would be glad to post them in the interest of trying to get this working properly.

 

[tonymazz]

I would say that if you are asking for help that whinning about vista would be counter productive. I'd suggest that you heed the advice given thus far and see where that takes you.

Read the moderator post above....

I again suggest REBUILD and maybe try an operating system that you both understand and enjoy......

 

[layusn1]

OK, looking at the moderators advice...don't use keygens/cracks/pirated programs. I don't recall doing any of those. I will check the links he provided and see if that is helpful. I do question though, and just for the sake of wondering...if virtumonde has been around that long...why didn't it cause these problems with XP...this is not a bash Vista question, this is a I want to understand the innards of Vista that would make it crash with a trojan that may or may not have caused this many issues with previous operating systems.

Also...just telling me that shutting down processes is about the worst debugging attempt possible doesn't really help. I am working within the limits of my knowledge and what my research has provided up to this point. Seems most people respond with common causes for Vista explorer crashes is programs that you have installed. I figure kill the process and you kill whatever any program that wasn't running in safe mode and thus MAYBE find the source...it was an attempt, maybe a "noob" attempt, but an attempt none the less.

I really didn't intend for this post to turn into a flaming/mudslinging/piddling anyone off thread...I am just really frustrated here and don't understand how if I have done nothing different than what I used to do with XP I am having this many issues...I figure that is a reasonable try to understand the inner workings of this OS type question. Perhaps my frustration caused me to phrase some things in a less than ideal manner...again, I apologize.

I am trying to avoid a rebuild because I am away from all of my software and on a laptop. I won't have access to my other software...Office, etc. for some time (months)...unless I download something with a keygen...lol...and apparently that would be a bad idea (legalities aside) and just put me right back in the same situation. Again, I am sorry for any ruffled feathers and really do appreciate any advice/suggestions and would really like to understand Vista if it is going to work well. If I am forced to rebuild, after I get the OS installed and all of the updates taken care of, what would you suggest for creating an image of the disk? I have a 120gb drive that came with the laptop and an extra 120gb hard drive that I could mount a clean image to so that way if this happens again I have a good backup.

Sticking with an OS that I am comfortable with/know will not help me learn/grow...that is the main reason I haven't just gone back to XP yet. I was thinking about rebuilding it with Ubuntu as the host OS and running Vista in a VMware image because that way I can learn the OS and if something goes wrong I would only have to delete the VMware image and reload a good copy...quick, clean and simple. Sorry for the long response as well, I just want everyone to understand where I am coming from and that I am really not a bad guy that just wants to flame Vista.

 

[tonymazz]

Ok...so you have Virtumonde ? Recognize that this is a nasty bugger that sprays crap into your registry....

It is tough to get rid of ....

So excluding any "I hate vista rants" let's figure out what this is doing.... when you fire up IE 7 what exactly does it do ? Do you ever get into IE ? what is the error message ?

You say it works in safe mode ? Can you boot in safe with networking and actually go out on the internet ?

If you have a trojan that has spray crap in you registry you may simply have to bite the bag and rebuild. I have been there and can tell you I have twiddled for hours even working ahead of trojans as they destroy one process thread at a time...and can tell you it is the most reliable.

..but if you start with a few simple facts of what the machine is actually doing folks can start to chime in....there's a huge amount of talent on this forum so let's get back to fixing things....

Check the event viewer as well and tell us what it says too...

 

[layusn1]

Yes, I can boot into safe mode with networking and connect to the internet. I generally only use Internet Explorer for Vista Updates. For web browsing I stick with Firefox with NoScript.

The only "issue" that is presenting itself is Vista Explorer crashing every time I open a folder. Sometime Explorer will restart and sometimes I have to ctr alt del and go to task manager and start a new instance of explorer. It is random too. It started one day and I had not installed anything just before it started happening but I uninstalled the last program I had installed, which was a media server app to stream video to my PS3 and everything was fine again for a couple of weeks and then a few days ago it just started again. No new software, I hadn't changed anything myself, it just started crashing Explorer every time I opened any folder.

I haven't really spent any time in Event Viewer, if you could tell me which logs would help I would appreciate it. I just ran S&D again and it comes up with 14 entries for SpyHunter and that's it. I have a screen shot of the entries if that would help. There is a post "Fix Selected Problems" screen shot as well. Thanks...

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[dmex]

just for the sake of wondering...if virtumonde has been around that long...why didn't it cause these problems with XP...this is not a bash Vista question, this is a I want to understand the innards of Vista that would make it crash with a trojan that may or may not have caused this many issues with previous operating systems.

XP doesnt stop software from gainging access to any part of the system and Virtumonde was able to embedd itself inside the kernel allowing it to completely disguise itself within the core XP components, Vista was redesigned with UAC and kernel patch protection to prevent spyware/malware and Trojens from completly embedding itself within core components.

If you get this on XP you just see popup adverts while its capturing your passwords and other computer use...If you get this on Vista it causes most of the core compoents to fail, lag, errors, hard-lock the machine and many other issues because they try todo the same bull**** with the same software on a completely new and redesigned Operating System, UAC and Kernel patch-protection can completely stop rootkits and other malicious software from disguising itself as part of the windows system and this makes the malicious software manufactors really pissed off because it affects there bottom line (income) and how much money they can steal from Windows customers...

Spyware/malware writers want to steal as much of your data and personal details as possible and want your pc running their software as long as possible without errors however anything that get in their way (i.e. Vista) they try to make fail and make you believe its failing you and seek an alternative like XP where they can infect and spy on you better.

UAC and kernel patch protection is exactly like sudo (and root) on Linux and I love it, Personally I have not had to use antivirus or had one virus or any infection using Vista in the last 18months which was a completely different story using XP 18months after its release.

If you believe Vista is failing you after installing their spyware then malware/virus writers are winning there FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) war on Vista :eek:

 

[layusn1]

Ok...I am putting on my kevlar vest and helmet now because this is probably where you are all going to shot me and tell me this is all my fault now. I installed Zone Alarm and that is when the crashes originally started. I researched that and everybody said disable UAC so guess what I did. Would re-enabling it help?

 

[dmex]

Ok...I am putting on my kevlar vest and helmet now because this is probably where you are all going to shot me and tell me this is all my fault now. I installed Zone Alarm and that is when the crashes originally started. I researched that and everybody said disable UAC so guess what I did. Would re-enabling it help?

If you having many issues after infection or other things its usually best to backup your files and reinstall

This Tutorial might help http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html ?

 

[johngalt]

I have t o step in on this conversation.

Earlier, you mentioned that many people you know who had Vista all had problems with it. You also just said that after installing Zone Alarm you read somewhere that disabling UAC would help solve problems.

Now, let's get one thing *perfectly* clear. UAC Is needed - it is the first line of defense after your hardware and software firewalls against malware infections. When you disable UAC you make your system a lot more vulnerable to malware.

Now, I guarantee well over 50% of the people who have been having issues have been following *other* people's bad advice and disabling UAC and doing other things that are detrimental to the use of Vista. Go with a fresh ins tall and ***this time*** forget what anyone tells you about disabling UAC.

And, for the record, just because many people are having issues with something does not make it that something's fault. Many people also have no clue how to run in a limited user account, having been spoiled by Win 3.x, Win 9X, Win ME, and Win XP - so they go about and try to find a short term fix for a single issue they are having without considering the long term effect of what they are doing. Case in point - your short term fix for ZA was disable UAC - which left you glaringly wide open for Malware to start coming in and setting up camp.

 

[jblim1980]

used trojan remover tnks

 

[layusn1]

Which one did you use???

 

[jblim1980]

for vista compatible trojan remover 6.8

 

[johngalt]

You're still better off reinstalling from scratch- Virtumond is a nasty one that is nearly impossible to completely remove without a format and re-install.

You can also try Malwarebytes.org