Explorer.exe deleted -- twice -- any ideas why?

[Entity]

System(s): WinXP Pro, MSI 845GE boards. One system is at work, the other at home; both are running McAfee Virusscan 7. My system at home is behind a firewall. In both cases, I've been working with the PCs just fine, then restarted them (intentionally); no memory of installing Windows updates in either case. Upon restart, you get to the login screen just fine, but try to login, and no luck.

Anyone have ideas what might be causing this? I can't see any traces of a backdoor, trojans, or viruses on either of the systems. At work I restored the explorer.exe file from the WinXP cab files on the CD, and it works just fine now; I haven't had any problems since then.

This is very strange -- I tried searching google but no luck. Any ideas?

Rob

 

[Lord Evermore]

So you actually looked and the explorer.exe file wasn't in the proper place? Was there a copy of it anywhere? Don't you use system restore?

 

[NogginBoink]

Are you sure explorer.exe was deleted?

If you attempt to log in and get kicked back to the logon screen, it's likely that the boot drive letter has changed. Have you been doing funky disk swapping/cloning/maintenance?

See Q249321

 

[Entity]

Yeah, it got deleted. The solution (both times) has been to boot to the WinXP CD, then go into the i386 directory and type "expand explorer.exe C:\windows."

Not sure why it keeps happening.

Rob

 

[Lord Evermore]

PEBKAC?

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
PEBKAC?

FOAD. I can speak in acronyms too.

Rob