Windows Explorer shortcut GONE WILD!

[crisc]

Very odd problem has started up on one of my user's W2K PC. She created a shortcut on her desktop for explorer.exe (windows explorer) and has used it for a long time. Suddenly, everytime she tries using it she'd get a error like this:

explorer.exe application error. The instruction at "0x0246b9c0" referenced memory at "0x0246b9c0". The memory could not be "read".

She IS able to right-click start button and "explore". She is also able to access Windows Explorer via Start | Programs | Accessories without this crash, which is odd, since both these invoke explorer.exe. Her "My Computer" works fine, too.


I did create a new shortcut from this and THIS CRASHES TOO!
So basically, the problem only manifests when she tries accessing Windows Explorer from a shortcut.

 

[OWizard1]

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe

This should be in the target box of the shortcut properties.

 

[bcastner]

You might consider bumping slightly the reserved memory for her registry; and slightly her virtual memory settings.

 

[bcastner]

My second guess would be profile corruption. If on the same machine a different/new user profile does not exhibit the same behavior, then copy the user profile:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151

 

[crisc]

UPDATE: still no fix found for this yet. I've discovered it is NOT just limited to shortcuts. Right-clicking Start, selecting Windows Explorer via the Start Menu, even typing explorer.exe in the Run box all cause the same error. I've tried renaming her user folder and having her login again (essentially getting a new one) this had no effect. She had plenty of space reserved for the registry, and I tried bumping up her virtual memory size, no effect. I've even tried running a copy of Explorer.exe I brought over from a known-good PC!

It only crashes about a third of the time. It NEVER crashes using "My Computer", however.

It seems like such a waste of effort to rebuild the PC, any more ideas out there?