Cannot open Explorer AT ALL!! - Illegal Operation.

[Laura18]

Everytime I try to open something with Explorer (whether it be the internet or simply trying to access My Computer of other folders on the desktop) it always says there is an illegal operation. This has just started appearing and I cannot access practically anything! Does anyone have any idea why it's doing this and how I could fix it? Thanks very much.

[Laura18]

I saw that someone else had a similar problem and were told to repair Internet Explorer via the Control Panel - I can't even do that because the Control Panel won't open either.

[TommyC]

Not sure whether you're talking about Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer, but I'll assume the latter as it's much more common. Sounds like you have one or more viruses, so you need to run a full anti-virus scan first and get rid of them. If Explorer still doesn't open after that, you'll probably need to re-install it - and the same for any other corrupted software.

[Laura18]

thanks for answering! Oh no, i really hope it isn't a virus. I ran a virusscan but there was nothing. I may have deleted something I shouldn't - would this cause my problem too?

[TommyC]

Yes, if you've accidentally deleted any system files for either Internet Explorer or Windows itself. The fastest fix is to go to the Microsoft technical help site - I'm afraid I don't have the URL address so just search on Google for MSDN - then scan the page for the free download for the current version of Internet Explorer. Download this, and then just re-install IE by running that file, and that should remove the corruption.

[Laura18]

Thanks Tommy, I'll do that (I'm on another computer at the moment so I hope I can actually get onto the net which I'm doubting I'll be able to do as everything else requiring IE won't open!) but if not, I suppose reinstalling windows 98 may work. Thanks!

[Raydude]

simple fix you need to scan the disk for errors. If this yields nothing, try booting in safe mode and try system restor (XP only). If this fails, re-install XP/windows.

[Laura18]

thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated. I've uninstalled then reinstalled windows (reinstalling alone didn't work) and all's sorted! looking back, i feel silly worry about it....but virus's tend to make me worry anyway! thanks again, laura.