Help, no explorer on boot.

[poken1151]

Hey all.

I'm having a bootup problem. I'm running vista x86 ultimate. And recently, everytime I boot up the pc, windows defender asks to allow winlogin to work, i click ok and it goes to a black screen...just there, so i ctrl+alt+del, and manually start explorer with the task manager and everythings fine. Thats my only major problem right now, along a few visual problems. But Ive been using vista fr a lLONG while now and this is the first major problem i've had, Any help?

[poken1151]

I'm sorry for bumping this, but I cant find a solution ANYWHERE please, is there anyon e who knows how I can get the windows explorer to start on system startup. Please.

[cluberti]

Well, if defender is breaking in on winlogon, it sounds like something has been installed (or installed itself...) that has changed winlogon functionality. Since winlogon is so critical to system boot, anything pausing this (like defender is doing) will have dire consequences. Boot into safe mode and see if you can't disable Windows Defender, but it sounds like you need to ultimately figure out what has tried to get it's tentacles into Winlogon. If you tried to install VPN or remote control software that isn't certified to work with the new winlogon architecture in Vista, this stuff does happen (I've seen it many times with versions of PCAnywhere and Cisco VPN software that weren't Vista certified).

[poken1151]

Hmm, the only remote software I have is VNC server, and that has been with me since I first installed Vista. The only astranged software that a family member has installed as of late, was some MAC address thing that, according to her, changed the mac address everytime windows loaded, but I couldnt find any trace of it (and now everytime the pc goes to sleep the network dies and I have to fully restart) Its a bit ways off to try a system restore, is there anyway I can Resolve this? Ive tried the repair from the disk, no luck.

Also. It wasnt windows defender giving me the message about winlogon.exe, But actually the UAC, I disabled the UAC and rebooted, but this time, no messages no nothig. Explorer.exe still wouldnt start now there just wasnt any message...just a blue screen with my mouse, so as usual, I manually started it.

Edited April 12, 2007 by poken1151

[cluberti]

Try restoring to a point previous to the issue using system restore?

[poken1151]

Well, like I said, I really wish I could do that. But I cant for one system restore wasnt turned on at the time and wasnt turned on until a week or so later (for some reason vista never turned it on for me when I first installed.)

[wfunction]

Create a file named [something].reg, and copy this in:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="explorer.exe"

Import it, and restart or log off and on.

Does it help?

[poken1151]

Ok,I wil try that now.

EDIT: WONDERFUL!! It worked beautifully, I totally forgot how it felt to have explorer up on startup, lol. Thanks alot for your help. Very very very much.

Edited April 16, 2007 by poken1151

[wfunction]

Sure, no problem.

For those that always say do a System Restore...

I always assume that they've tried that.