Computer help needed

[David04]

My computer sucks. But that's besides the point. Whenever I try to open a folder on my desktop, I get the error message
"Windows Explorer has encountered an error and needs to close". It also happens when I I try to open My Computer from the Start menu. I haven't tried opening anything else(besides Party) and I am reluctant to do a restore (because it has screwed up my PT in the past)

Can I fix this without restoring? It just started happening a few minutes ago, so I wouldn't need to restore too far back?

And while we're here-I can't bring up Task Manager. I press Control Alt Dlete, and it will pop up for a second but then it dissapears. I have tried to restore, but that hasn't helped. Any suggestions(besides restoring)?

[joshman1204]

sounds like a possible virus, do you run up to date AV software?

[David04]

[ QUOTE ]
sounds like a possible virus, do you run up to date AV software?

[/ QUOTE ]
I run AdAware every day.

Edit-Just ran it again, and it's still messed up.

[vetman81]

AdAware is different than Antivirus. If you dont have Norton or McAfee or some other antivirus, you can get free ones off of the net. AVG has received good reviews. Do a google search and you can find it. It is free and does a good job. Run the virusscan and see if that helps.

[David04]

Okay I just downloaded AVG, I'll run a scan.

[CORed]

It could be a virus, or it could be file corruption or dll conflicts. If the OP has installed new software recently, it could have clobbered a dll that explorer uses. It's not just his computer that sucks, its also Windows.