WINDOWS Explorer won't start (Internet Explorer works fine)

Internet explorer works just fine .. can browse the internet and the local hard drives - no problem.

But, WINDOWS EXPLORER is different .. when you click on any shortcut that would use Windows Explorer (say My Computer, Control Panel or the actual one for Windows Explorer), the screen just flickers a bit, and then returns as if nothing had happened.

If I have the Task Manager open when I click on Windows Explorer, I can see a very brief 'task' named sysfader.exe .. but it goes away and I'm left with the same screen as I started with.

I turned off the 'fade' effect in the video driver and now nothing shows up in task manager when I attempt to start Windows Explorer.

I've ran a virus scan and an Adware scan .. both run clean.
I downloaded and ran a registry cleaner/checker and it runs clean - after three passes.
I called support and they want me to reload Windows - basically .. I'm thinking there is a must less drastic 'fix' for this .. any ideas?

hi, welcome to DAL,

This is just a possibility but is better than a clean install, it just re-installs the windows files and leaves everything else alone: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XP...install.htm#RI

I would recommend backing up important data to another HD (not the "C:" drive as this is the one with the windows files in it) or CD/DVD.

I have used this a number of times and once, it completed and restarted to a blue screen leaving me only the option to do a clean install.
there may be a simpler solution for this but i dont know what it is.
Hope this helps,
Mike

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