When you logon to your user account in Windows 8 or 10, an error message with Explorer.EXE as title along with yellow exclamation may appear, without any message text. This usually happens after removing malware from the system.
![Fix Explorer.exe Error With Yellow Exclamation During Startup Fix Explorer.exe Error With Yellow Exclamation During Startup](https://c.ihax.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fix-Explorer.EXE-Error.png)
The fix for this is pretty easy – all you have to do is to remove the reference to a non-existent file from one of the startup locations in the registry. This is how to do it:
Step 1. Press WinKey + R to bring up the Run menu, type Regedit.exe and press Enter.
![Explorer EXE Startup Error - Fix Explorer.exe Error with Yellow Exclamation during Startup Fix Explorer.exe Error With Yellow Exclamation During Startup](https://c.ihax.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Explorer-EXE-Startup-Error.png)
Step 2. Navigate to the following location in the Registry Editor:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWindows
![Fix Explorer.exe Error With Yellow Exclamation During Startup Fix Explorer.exe Error With Yellow Exclamation During Startup](https://c.ihax.io/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fix-Explorer.EXE-Error-2.png)
Step 3. Double-click on the Load key and clear the existing value data to set it blank.
The above location is one of the many startup launch-points in Windows, and the viruses/malware easily add entries here. And when you clean up the virus/malware, the values may end up pointing to a malware file that is not available any more after the cleanup.