Windows Explorer hangs when opening 'Program Files'

Hi, first timer here. I've been racking my brain over this and it's driving me nuts.

My computer is a little sluggish at the moment but the big problem occurs when I try to open "Program files" in Windows explorer. It hangs takes a good 5 minutes to do it and Windows Task Manager shows explorer as not responding while it trys to open the folder. Windows explorer opens all other folders ok, it's just the 'Program Files' folder that causes the long hang up.

I've run several types of spyware (namely windows Defender, Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper and F-Secure Blaclight Rootkit). I've also checked for viruses with AVG to no avail.

I've also ran chkdisk on the drive and it came up with nothing.

When I shut explorer down before it opens 'Program Files' I get asked to send the problem to microsoft. When I do I get the following page open up.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response...44793&SID=1894

I can't remove messenger though because when I go to "remove programs" my computer hangs like when explorer is being used (I assume it uses Explorer to pouplate the program list).

Has anyone got any ideas?

Cheers
Scotty

As a first response you might want to post a HijackThis log for review by our Pros in that section:

Please follow the instructions HERE & then post your log in a new thread in the Spyware, Adware, Viruses and HijackThis Logs section.
(Not in this section please).

Please specify what issues you appear to be experiencing along with your log.


After they give you an all clear and if the problem persists please reply back to this thread.