IExplorer in the background

[Lixivium]

I've been dealing with virus and spyware issues on my notebook. Nothing turns up on TrendMicro's Housecall and Ad-Aware, so I think I finally took care of them all. The only problem is, while the notebook runs, every 10 minutes or so I will lose focus on the program I'm currently using. If I open up Program Manager I can see the "IEXPLORE.EXE" process running in the background (no active window).

It's not really a big deal; just that multiple instances of IEXPLORE running in the background takes up some memory. The best I can figure is that some other program is trying to call up a pop-up window using Internet Explorer, except that no active window is opened. Like I said before, no spyware or virus is being detected.

Also, I can no longer open My Computer by double-clicking on it; it says it doesn't know which program to use. I have to say "Open With..." -> Internet Explorer and it works as normal.

Any ideas?

 

[Eight Sage]

Did you scan your PC in order to see if a register had changed?

 

[AltF4]

Hrmmm... that reeks of spyware to me.

Go and download something called "Active Ports"
http://www.download.com/3000-2085-10062969.html

It'll tell you what ports you have open and what's using them. If you see anything funny on there, you're in trouble. Whatever you do, don't do any online banking or shopping from that computer.

 

[Jammer]

Make sure it says "IEXPLORE", with an "I", and not "1EXPLORE", with a "1".

Wait--nevermind. It doesn't sound like IEXPLORE.EXE is the problem. It sounds more like a corrupt registry to me, like Eight Sage said. Your computer is confused about which program to use for different tasks.

My advice? Use Linux. But seriously, does anyone know a way to fix the system registry if it's broken? I'm not all that familiar with it.