I'm not sure this is a problem or not - I scanned the lot with my virusscanner, Malwarebytes and Spybot and nothing came up, but still ... Just to be on the safe side I'll post it here ;)

Lately (started already before updating to SP2, so that's not the culprit) IE7 crashes more often then I consider normal (yeah yeah - I like IE and ok it crashes every now and again, but it works ok for me and I want to stick to it <grin>) and a new window is added when I use the taskmanager to shut it down and start again.
Btw when IE crashes it is always when starting it up, not when it is already running. And it mostly happens when I have a window open in MSN or Windows Mail.
The new extra window looks rather win98 like ...

Here are some screenshots:

When I use the taskamanager to shut IE down this appears which wasn't there a few weeks ago:

After clicking 'nu beeïndigen' (= end now) this window appears, which was there before:

Also shows how IE crashes: nothing appears, that's all. Starting it again is all that is needed for it to run ok.

But this is not the only thing that has changed.
The other change I can't take a screenshot of, since it happens the moment I shut down.
(Someone any idea how to get screenshots of a shutdown???)

When I shutdown a black screen appears, with a slick red button and a blue one I think. I can't see it properly, it passes in a flash and is gone before I know it. It looks really Vista like, not Win98 or something.
And I believe the text it displays says something about explorer.exe and something not shut down properly.
It is so fast I can't read it and I've been trying to every single time I shutdown for about two weeks now!

Anyone any idea what is going on?
And particularly how I can get IE to crash normally again <LOL>.
Oh well, that is - less frequent and without that win98 window.

Only other thing that has changed since is that I have installed a new version of Windows Live Messenger and the A-patch that goes with it. But if I remember correctly that was already after this appeared.
Can't think of anything else I installed or changed in that time - pc is pretty much in order, so no need to tweak anymore ;)

Cheers,
Sarah.

Try re-installing IE7 or switch to IE8.

Irv

Oh and another thing: in Windows Live Messenger I can click on a popup that shows me I have new email on my hotmailaccount, but it won't open IE either.
That's since today ...

Edit: I went to task manager and ended proces 'iexplore'. Nothing happened, so I ended 'processtructure' and voila, hotmail messages came pouring in ;)

To merge in a .REG file, all you need do is double-click on them in Explorer.

For MHT extension files, the link is a list of programs that open them.

Probably a Registry or Association error that is stopping you from opening MHT files. I found a fix on the web that should work and fix the problem.

=======================================
==Problem==
IE cannot open any MHT or MHTML file stored on a local disk. IE either shows "navigation canceled" page or it shows the source code or HTML code of the MHT /
MHTML file. Either way the file will not render properly in IE.

==Solution:==
When these symptoms occur, the simplest or basic solution is ensure that the file associations are properly set up in the Windows Operating system.

1. Open any file folder or Windows Explorer
2. Click "Tools" in the top menu
3. Click "Folder Options"
4. If MHT and/or MHTML file association exists in the list, delete them.
5. Click "New" button
6. Type "MHT" in the file extension field box
7. Click "Advanced" button
8. Scroll and find listed - "MHTML Document", click it.
9. Click OK
10. Windows File associations create the MHT file association, usually with the correct ICON.
11. Repeat steps for MHTML extension.

What if you already used the "open with program" method and associated the MHT file extension but cannot see it in the file association list?

1. Start with steps 5-10 above for either or both the MHT or MHTML extension.
2. Scroll the file associations to find the MHT or MHTML extension. Click "restore".
3. The file extension is no longer lost, and it is completely reset as the default.

Now IE opens the MHT or MHTML files properly.
====================

See if it works.

Irv

Ok - last night when sutting down the PC I saw the same black screen appear again!
But worse - when I started up this morning I couldn't get in. Complete crash.
So I restored an older image. Hope it is old enough and the problem still didn't exist in this one.
Still on SP1 on this image, but funny thing is Windows Update doesn't tell me SP2 is there???
Will know more at the next boot.

Cheers,
Sarah.

So I solved the explorer-part of my quest.
Just curious if you know what I did to prevent this silly screen from popping up ;)
...

LOL - no it is just a silly message telling me Windows is shutting down too fast to play the shutdown sound!
So it makes the effort of displaying a full message ???!!! Which flashes by too fast to read, because Windows is shutting down so fast.
I can't read all of it, because of the flashlight, but the main story is: explorer.exe - playing shutdownsound -this program can't be run because windows is shutting down too fast for it. Click to close these programs to prevent data loss. And then a couple of shutdownbuttons or one big one and a button to cancel.
Yeah right as if I could ever hit that button when it is flashing by so fast I hadn't even seen it in all the past weeks I've been trying to read what it says.

Anyway - the solution was that I simply set no sound for shutting down in the control panel under sounds.
Still wonder why this all of a sudden became a problem, while it has been playing that sound for a year or so.

You might have enabled a 'fast' shutdown before like LH is thinking.

It is all over the web, like this info below here.

--------------
Open Regedit (WINDOWS KEY + R on your keyboard, or by clicking Start and typing on the search bar "regedit" without quotes. Hit Enter

Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l] On the right panel look for the "WaitToKillServiceTimeout" string and change it value to 1000 by right clicking the string and selecting Modify...

Default Value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=20000

Modified value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=5000
Modified value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=1000 (extreme, use it at your own risk)

I found 3000 worked nicely but try the 5000 first. 3000 does sometimes leave some programs lagging which then need a further key click.
--------------------------------------

Here is another PAGE with info on this.

One thing to possibly do, open up the properties for all your disks and MAKE sure the 'lazy write' (under POLICIES) is not enabled. If you close the disk before data gets written back you could have some problems.

Irv

Do you close all your programs before shutting down ?

See if you can find anything in the event logs that might give a clue as to which program or service is being slow to shutdown.