Why explorer.exe so special? \ VOGONS

Why explorer.exe so special?

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First post, by lucky7456969

Posted on 2016-09-21, 08:51

lucky7456969 Offline

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Joined: 2009-09-10, 05:49

I've tried several things to make it a standalone program.

1) changed the imagebase from 0x10000000 to 0x400000
2) removed all manifests by resource hacker
3) renamed the file itself.

But it still calls itself a explorer.exe inside the task manager.
What's so special about it?

Why so persistent?

BTW, is it possible to have a separate standalone shell apart from the explorer.exe, but unlike Litestep that actually
replaces it?

Thanks
Jack

Reply 1 of 4, by Snayperskaya

Posted on 2016-09-23, 16:40

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explorer.exe is part of the Windows' GUI/shell, no?

Reply 2 of 4, by Jade Falcon

Posted on 2016-09-25, 14:42

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lucky7456969 wrote:

BTW, is it possible to have a separate standalone shell apart from the explorer.exe, but unlike Litestep that actually
replaces it?

Yes I seen this a lot on retail pos systems. There is a reg key you can point to your own shel

Reply 3 of 4, by Reckless

Posted on 2016-09-25, 19:04

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Wiki provides a list of alternate shells here

Reply 4 of 4, by candle_86

Posted on 2016-09-26, 18:02

candle_86 Offline

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its possible, I remember on XP SP1 screwing with a friend at a lan party by reassigning the shell from shell32 to progman. Boy was he pissed 🤣

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