I am using Dell Latitude D600 with Windows XP sp2
Lately I have been getting a message (completly randomly) saying %26quot;To help protect your computer, Windows has closed this program%26quot; Name: Windows Explorer
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation.
I%26#039;m not sure exactly why it started doing this or how to fix it. I have looked at several other searches, and have tried to change it in the %26quot;performance Options%26quot; under the Data Execution Prevention settings, but it says I am not an administrator (although I am.) so it says I cannot make any changes...
Can anyone help me? =/|||DEP stands for Data Execution Prevention. It means preventing the program from trying to use its data area as program code -- a serious malware trick. If you%26#039;re getting DEP errors, there%26#039;s a good chance you have malware on your machine trying to trick Windows Explorer into doing bad stuff.
If you have an anti-virus, I suggest you make sure it has the latest virus definitions and run a scan with it. If you don鈥檛 have one, many people here swear by AVG (it鈥檚 free).
I suggest you also download Ad-Aware 2007 and Spybot S%26amp;D (they鈥檙e free), install them, update them and run them. If any of the above (or any anti-malware, for that matter) doesn鈥檛 seem to be able to get rid of everything it reports finding, try running it again in Safe Mode. Safe Mode often prevents malware from protecting itself.
Also, turn off System Restore to evict any copies of bad stuff that might be lurking there.
To get into Safe Mode:
1. Log out and reboot your machine.
2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.
3. Select Safe Mode from the resulting menu.
4. When the login screen comes up, log in as Administrator. By default, Administrator has no password.
5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different. You won%26#039;t be able to see the Internet, for instance.
6. When you%26#039;re finished, log out and reboot back into normal mode.
Note that even if the anti-malware programs get rid of the malware, they may not be able to reverse the effects. Search the Web for possible fixes.
Update and run everything regularly.
Good luck.|||virus - get avast antivirus and spybot s%26amp;d http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index鈥?/a>
