XP crashes on desktop

[cis]

Iam trying to find this out for a relation. He went to use his xp system and now every time he opens an icon from the desktop it freezes and needs a re-boot. hes never had this problem before and hasnt loaded any new programs.Hes running on onboard graphics only.

[david eaton]

My first thought would be virus.
Second thought, another virus or similar.
(but then, I'm paranoid!)

Has an anti virus program been tried? Look
here (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=34) in the priority threads for antivirus/trojan applications.

Another possibility is to do a system restore, back to before this problem started. If system restore is inaccessible, then booting from the Windows XP CD, and running the "repair" option should do it.

David

[cis]

i suggested trying the last known good config on start up but it still happened. i doubt its a virus but ill try booting up and run a virus checker from dos.

[Budfred]

I get it now, this THREAD (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23748) belongs as a reply in this thread....

Now that I understand what you are talking about, is this happening with a particular icon or with any icon at all? Has this person tried running WinXP's Repair function for the original CD?

[cis]

as far as i know its happening on every icon, it sounds to me like the file governing the desktop is corrupt in some way. he hasnt tried the repair function yet, it might be worth trying.

[malcore]

TweakUI has an option to repair shortcuts.

Does this happen when he is logged in as administrator? If it doesn't, then there is something wrong with his user configuration (not Windows as a whole).

Have a look at this forum thread (http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20412074.html) , similar problem. Solved by removing a third party browser helper or disabling third party browser extensions.