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I am running Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32-bit. I have a strange problem(s) that I think has to do with explorer.exe. Here is a list of the problems I have noticed:

First of all pop-up notifications associated with the icons in the bottom-right (near the clock) are never displayed. However it still plays the sound when it's supposed to display.

In a seemingly random chance, closing out of an Explorer window sometimes makes the taskbar unresponsive for about a minute, after which it would then return back to normal.

Also, from time to time at roughly 2-4 hour intervals, it seems to horribly malfunction. The desktop icons either disappear or become totally disfigured. If I try to open an Explorer window it only shows the title bar and nothing else. The only way that I found to temporarily fix it is to end the explorer.exe process and run it again.

Does anybody have any idea how I could fix this? Please refrain from suggesting a virus scan or format/system restore. Thanks.

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Sounds like a buggy extension at work. Do you have any toolbars, extensions, addons, browser helper objects, etc on Windows Explorer? You don't actively have to install them, as some unscrupulous software installers sometimes do decide to install some along with their own software – jay Oct 15 '10 at 1:53
Not that I'm aware of. In the case that one was installed out of my knowledge, is there any way I can check? – kaykun Oct 15 '10 at 2:10
I've had this happen when there was a bad BHO mucking about. You could try running CCleaner's registry cleaning portion, or running HijackThis! and checking for any BHOs or otherwise suspicious elements. Personally, though, I'd save the time and format. – Nic Oct 15 '10 at 20:16
I would take a look at the system and application Windows event logs and see if there is anything that might give you a clue about what's causing it to crash like that. – Bratch Oct 15 '10 at 20:38
to do a quick check click the View menu in Explorer and see the Toolbars and Explorer Bars menu. Or right click the the toolbar area and see what else is there in the menu. Find the uninstaller for the ones you don't want, or disable any reference to explorer extensions via their respective software preferences. – jay Oct 15 '10 at 22:46
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