Who says you need explorer.exe to post on 2+2?

[bobman0330]

...but it sure would be nice!

This Tuesday, my A/C adapter for my laptop was stolen. I replaced it with a Targus charger. That adapter worked once. The next time I restarted my computer, it froze as soon as it got to the desktop. Task Manager revealed that quickset (a power management utility) was using something like 98% of CPU power. I killed it, no help. On restart, quickset was fine, but explorer.exe appeared to be frozen. No response from icons on the desktop, and an hourglass cursor whenever I moved the mouse over the taskbar. Couldn't open the start menu. I returned the Targus adapter and got one from the manufacturer. Same problem with explorer.

I finally came up with a partial workaround. On startup, I kill explorer.exe, then run it again from Task Manager. It still freezes up, but it gets far enough to configure my internet. Then, I kill it again, and start anything I need from Task Manager. I've installed a bunch of spyware detectors and AV software, but I haven't turned up any problems that would explain this. I really really really don't want to reformat. Any ideas?

I'm running a Dell Latitude D600, Pentium M 1.6, 512 MB RAM, WinXP Pro.

Thanks in advance.

[MyMindIsGoing]

I am never amazed what problems people get on and on with windows XP and they still continue to use it.

I use WinXP without too many problems. A big part of stability is prevention. I run AV software, firewall, and run Ad-Aware and Spybot at least once a week. I defrag regularly. I clean the registry. And, most important of all, I have a 300gb external hdd with full backups of both my computers.

Sure, it is a good amount of work. Maybe I'd be better off using linux, but as a law student I don't really have the time to make the switch. Anyway, sometimes I miss ms-dos and WordPerfect 5.1.

[beta1607]

What would you recommend instead of XP?

[MyMindIsGoing]

Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Server.

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
I use WinXP without too many problems. A big part of stability is prevention. I run AV software, firewall, and run Ad-Aware and Spybot at least once a week. I defrag regularly. I clean the registry. And, most important of all, I have a 300gb external hdd with full backups of both my computers.

Sure, it is a good amount of work. Maybe I'd be better off using linux, but as a law student I don't really have the time to make the switch. Anyway, sometimes I miss ms-dos and WordPerfect 5.1.

[/ QUOTE ]

I loved WordPerfect 5.1.

Shift-F7 baby!

scrub

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
I am never amazed what problems people get on and on with windows XP and they still continue to use it

[/ QUOTE ]

99.99% of these are user/infection issues

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 Server.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you have any idea how much W2k3 Server costs? Wtf man.

[MyMindIsGoing]

You can get a free beta from MS. FREE! And yes windows 2003 R2 beta is way better than XP.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
You can get a free beta from MS. FREE! And yes windows 2003 R2 beta is way better than XP.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is not better than XP for the home user. And ooh a free beta, what do you suggest these users you are telling to get it will do when it expires?

[FouTight]

WTF, I'm still trying to find where someone said you DID need explorer.exe to post on 2+2???

[MyMindIsGoing]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can get a free beta from MS. FREE! And yes windows 2003 R2 beta is way better than XP.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is not better than XP for the home user. And ooh a free beta, what do you suggest these users you are telling to get it will do when it expires?

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a free copy of another beta? What is with the attitude, something happened? My new avatar disturbing you?

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can get a free beta from MS. FREE! And yes windows 2003 R2 beta is way better than XP.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is not better than XP for the home user. And ooh a free beta, what do you suggest these users you are telling to get it will do when it expires?

[/ QUOTE ]

Get a free copy of another beta? What is with the attitude, something happened? My new avatar disturbing you?

[/ QUOTE ]

There is not always a beta available. Users running R2 would not be able to upgrade to LH client beta (no server >> client upgrade path ever exists). For a tech savy person that is ok multi booting or just wants to use the newest stuff / doesn't care about clean installing and losing all their installed programs etc testing/playing around with a beta is fine. Reccomending one for home use to casual users is not a responsible thing to do. Not only are you telling people to run a server sku that may or may not support all their current programs and will expire at some point you are recomending a beta for stability over an OS that has already gone through two service pack releases.

As far as the avatar goes yes it does disturb me /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
WTF, I'm still trying to find where someone said you DID need explorer.exe to post on 2+2???

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of people think explorer.exe = iexplore.exe

[MyMindIsGoing]

Acutally win 2003 server is not all that diffrent in looks and such than xp. And everything works fine, so good infact I will install it instead of my win 2000 witch is the best I ever had so far. Btw I am not that person always wanting the latest, if so I would not hang on to my w2k /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Here is where you can get windows 2003 RC2: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/R2/trial/default.mspx

Btw, it realy is SP1 (final) with an upgrade, so you can actually skip upgrading it to RC2 and use a final version of the os for free for 6 months. Not too bad. And one thing is for certian, SP1 final IS very very stable.

*edit: gonna try a diffrent avatar, have not realy decided where to go yet*

These are the ones I consider:

http://onkel-morra-se.ath.cx/Asms.gif http://onkel-morra-se.ath.cx/mike1.gif http://onkel-morra-se.ath.cx/bobganja.jpg

[FouTight]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
WTF, I'm still trying to find where someone said you DID need explorer.exe to post on 2+2???

[/ QUOTE ]

A lot of people think explorer.exe = iexplore.exe

[/ QUOTE ]

over your head, sorry... (for the record, I think OP realizes the difference)

at any rate, in response to 2k/xp/2k3 posts, here's my take.

both of my laptops tri-boot win2k, XP and whatever the latest OS I want to tinker around with is (currently Suse 10 on one and the latest Mandrake (which is getting unistalled soon) on the other).

I find that I use 2k most of the time, but it's definately falling behind. It has problems handling my multiple monitors and there is something goofy with the way it's provessing video on my one computer. I watch a lot of TV shows and DVD's on my one laptop, it's hooked up to my TV, and windows 2k doesn't cut it, for some reason when the TV is enabled, it just kills the processor, have no idea why.

[stabn]

It's an upgrade that isn't even completed yet! I agree that W2k3 Sp1 is rock solid but it is still a server OS not a workstation OS. It's also RTM which R2 isn't. http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y151/stabn/asdf.jpg

As you can see i've used it too. And while i like it there's no way i'm telling users to beta R2 over XP SP2.

As far as avatars go i'm not the best one to give a further opinion as to what is best. I've never used one /images/graemlins/smile.gif (ok i did for about 4 hours one day, but that's it).