explorer.exe will not start

I am not able to start Explorer.exe. I am getting a bit issue with the same. On boot the first message that I get on screen is explorer crash. There is a blank desktop and there is nothing on the screen. Even icons are not displayed. My pc was facing virus issue and it was simply resolved long back. I am using a free edition of AVG antivirus here. And it looks to be proper to deal with the problem that I am facing. But just after couple of days this new problem started appearing. Can anyone help me here.

The issue can be resolved by running a repair setup. You can simply use windows bootable disc. Just boot your system with the same and hit R to run the repair setup. The issue also occur due to corrupt registry values. There are ample of ready to use tool that can help you to fix the problem. Just run a repair setup and then test back. That will be much more helpful. So just run the repair setup and then test back.

Try to download a good Registry Cleaning tool. That will be more helpful to fix the issue. You can try to find more errors inside Event Viewer. I will recommend you to copy paste the logs from event viewer and copy paste here. Just post the log report here and then test back. That will be more helpful to give you proper solution. There are ample of fixshell tool that can help you to fix the issue. If that does not work then you have to install from back.

I had the same problem and it was the third option that saved my life. Thanks a million, ju.c

Thank you so much for being so smart and helpful! Your post helped me fix this problem, and I had to create an account here to tell you how much I appreciate it.

I will also recommend you to run the repair setup. That will be more helpful in fixing the issue. Another simple thing you can do this here is run system restore. Just run that and choose the right date and then restore it. That will be more to fixing the issue. If that does not work then the only last option left is to install xp back again. Just backup your data and then test back. This would be more helpful in fixing the issue.

First I would like to thank all the great responses posted here. Second, I would like to add another option (that happened to be my problem) ... somehow the following file was corrupted:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat

My scenario was such that only 1 user of 3 on the Windows XP machine was affected. Therefore I knew none of the system-shared options were my problem. Explorer.exe would NOT even run manually from the affected user, but would run at login for the others. Other exe files would run from Task Manager (regedit, ccleaner, ...). Another test - creating a new user resulted in a clean desktop with no issues.

My fix was to login as user 3 and copy the UsrClass.dat file from user 2 to the affected user (user 1).