Windows explorer keeps crashing everytime I've got a directory or folder open on my desktop, and I can't stop it from happening - it happens everytime I've got a folder open. Can anyone help?

Last night I started getting strange popups from my taskbar saying I had loads of viruses on my computer and that I needed to scan my computer RIGHT NOW. I didnt recognise the popup - it wasn't AVG (which I normally use) - and it didn't have a security certificate.

It kept popping up in the middle of the screen and not allowing me to close the windows. It wouldnt allow me to run AVG or Spybot either, so I right clicked one of the windows and found the word sysguard32 and fraud.sysguard. I googled and found it was malware, and read how someone managed to get rid of it by finding the file in the Windows folder, renaming it, putting it on the desktop, restarting the computer and then deleting it. I tried just deleting it but couldn't so followed what they'd suggested and it worked. I restarted the computer, then could run AVG and Spybot, which both found and removed more malware.

Anyway, the weird pretend antivirus programme and its icon in my taskbar has disappeared, but now I've got a new problem - every time I open a folder on my desktop, it's open for a few minutes then crashes.

This is the message I get:

Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Hooray! Anyway, this is the error signature, which I can't make head nor tail of. It's the same thing that comes up everytime

AppName: explorer.exe AppVer: 6.0.2900.5512 ModName: sdhelper.dll
ModVer: 1.6.2.14 Offset: 0000517c

I googled sdhelper.dll and it's related to the spybot programme....

Any ideas? I'm really stuck. I try and fix things myself usually by googling and reading what people have recommended in forums but I can't really find anything that fits this...

Please help! Thanks much! :)

tell you what you could possibly do is backing up all your photo's ect onto either dvd disk as data or and external storage device and then doing a fresh install of windows wichever the windows operating system you have this might cure the problem i had to do it on my sisters laptop before as she had an antivirus thing coming up and everytime she logged on the laptop loads of pop ups kept coming up but everytime i tryed to remove the socalled antivirus programe all the pop ups still came up and there was no way of getting rid of it and this was the only way i thought of, then when i went through the acer erecovery management and then went onto, restore to factory defult settings it restored everything fresh on the laptop and sorted it out, hope you get it sorted out :thumbsup:

Windows explorer keeps crashing everytime I've got a directory or folder open on my desktop, and I can't stop it from happening - it happens everytime I've got a folder open. Can anyone help?


Use System restore: Start> Control Panel> Performance and Maintenance> System Restore (Option in left hand corner) to get your system back to a date BEFORE you encountered the problem.

Once your system is restored, temporarily switch off system restore to stop the virus/spyware from reinfecting your system.

Start > My Computer.... then right click properties ..uncheck box next to system restore then OK and confim that you want to switch "system restore" off.

Once switched off, simply turn back system restore by doing the same steps as above.

Then do a complete spyware scan with your software updated with the latest definitions (If you can do this in Safe Mode as it is a more comprehensive scan in Safe Mode).

Hopefully you should come up with a clean scan.

Do you have any AVI files in the folders you're trying to open?

Do you have any AVI files in the folders you're trying to open?

I used to have problems opening folders with large AVI files in them, it seemed to be as XP was generating the thumbnail. Changing the folder view to list or details stopped it. Why does this happen ?

Dunno, just a common Windows fault. Easily corrected though.

Dunno, just a common Windows fault. Easily corrected though.


Yes, the folders do have AVI files in - how can I correct it?

Yes, the folders do have AVI files in - how can I correct it?

Try changing the folder view to details and not thumbnails, this might be difficult though if the folder wont open at all. I had to go into safe mode to change mine.

Try changing the folder view to details and not thumbnails, this might be difficult though if the folder wont open at all. I had to go into safe mode to change mine.

Thanks for the tip - does this mean I have to go into every different folder and do it for each one? I tried it on one in safe mode and it seemed to work. I tried looking in display and folder options in the control panel, but there doesn't seem to be any way to change all the folders to show just details. Any more ideas? I guess I need to move all my large media files into one folder... not easy if it keeps crashing!

Why is it doing this though? Has been working fine. I always thought it was Vista that had all the problems, not XP....

Thanks for the tip - does this mean I have to go into every different folder and do it for each one? I tried it on one in safe mode and it seemed to work. I tried looking in display and folder options in the control panel, but there doesn't seem to be any way to change all the folders to show just details. Any more ideas? I guess I need to move all my large media files into one folder... not easy if it keeps crashing!

Why is it doing this though? Has been working fine. I always thought it was Vista that had all the problems, not XP....

I'm not sure about making folder changes en masse but when this has happened to me it has usually been when a folder gets up to a certain size.

Not sure if this (http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-xp-support/110909-browsing-certain-folder-crashes-folder.html)helps.

Ah ha! I think I have made some sort of breakthrough...

Some told me to look on this page, troubleshooting windows explorer crashing (http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/explorer-crashes.html).

You can go there to read what he says, but I'll paraphrase briefly:


In a lot of cases, these errors are caused by 3rd party shell extensions that are not functioning properly.

These shell extensions are responsible for creating the options you'll see on the menu when you right-click a file using Windows Explorer. Some 3rd party applications will add their own "action" to this menu, and this can cause problems.

To try and find if a 3rd party shell extension is causing your Windows Explorer to crash on certain actions, you'll need to download this handy (and free) utility: ShelExView (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/shellexview.html). It will let you view & disable shell extensions.

After you downloaded & executed it, ShelExView will show all shell extensions installed on your system. You could sort the entries so that you'll have all non Microsoft shell extensions grouped together. Next, select all these non Microsoft shell extensions, and disable them. Try the sequence that would previously have resulted in Windows Explorer crashing (for example browsing a folder, or right-clicking a file). If no crash occurred, one of the shell extensions you disabled has been causing the crash. To find out which one, start enabling one shell extension at a time, each time testing to make sure you can still use Windows Explorer without it crashing, until you find the shell extension that would cause Windows Explorer to crash.

ShelExView gives you all additional information you need to know such as the product & company name of the shell extension, as well as the version number. If you would like to continue using the software of the 3rd party whose shell extension is causing the Explorer crash, contact the company responsible, and check to see if there is an updated version of the software you are trying to use.


He goes on to say that sometimes it can be caused by spyware (but I've been running Spyware and antivirus checks almost every hour!), so I downloaded the ShellExView programme, grouped all the different shell extensions together and tried disabling some to see whether they affected anything. Wouldn't you know it - it was the Spybot "Browser Helper" (great name given the circumstances). Once I had disabled that, everything worked fine.

What a lot of messing around! I need a Mac.

Thanks everyone for suggestions of help though, much appreciated :-)

Jobs a good un :thumbsup: