Why does Data Execution Prevention close explorer.exe?

I've been receiving this error almost randomly except while playing games or browsing the internet.
It started when I installed WINAMP. I uninstalled it already but I'm still receiving the error. I googled it and found out that it was supposed to be a bad codec. I already uninstalled codecs too but it still pops up without warning.

I don't think it's a bad memory since I'm not having any problems aside from this.

OS: WinXP Pro SP3
CPU: Q8400 Core 2 Quad 2.66Ghz
RAM: 2048MB
GPU: GeForce Nvidia GTX 260

DEP is a built in mechanism that closes running programs that it thinks are threats to Windows so on your system, sometimes explorer.exe appears threatening and it should not.

The explorer.exe is a pretty important piece of Windows machinery and being so fundamental, it is also a prime target for malicious software.

You can tell Windows to allow threatening programs to run by adding them to a DEP exception list, but explorer.exe should not be added as an exception. It may then run, but that is not a solution to your issue. It sounds like explorer.exe is either afflicted with malicious software or needs replacing.

Let's run some free scans for that and then fix what is left over:

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

Edited by joseibarra, 01 November 2009 - 09:39 PM.

I just did a full scan and clean in both safe mode and not. 'So far so good'
I overlooked the possibility of it being a spyware :\ Thank you for helping me out.

Good for you!