Weird phantom mess-up

[Dilbert]

As usual, XP SP2.

I wanted to create a new folder in another of my folders, so I could organize a few miscellaneous files. I went to New, and Create Folder, but nothing appeared. Typing a letter highlighted a file as if I hadn't selected "New Folder". So I rebooted.

Here's the best part...

I rebooted, and navigated to the folder, and about 4 or 5 New Foders were there. (I tried it several times) So I deleted all but one and went happily on my way. But I'm curious: Has this happened to anyone else? What can cause this?

[ElaineAVG]

Hi Dilbert

It may be worth your while doing this

Go into safe mode (that way only the basic stuff will load). How to start your computer in Safe Mode

Then do the following How To Clean An Infected Computer

Elaine

[Rob Pomeroy]

Yeah Dilbert, I have seen this kind of weirdness before.  Usually I see it with network drives though.  I wonder if the folder creation process occurs separately from the Explorer process?  And then the usual notification of changes doesn't occur occasionally?

Can't find anything useful in the MS Knowledgebase, but then it's hard to think of particularly useful search terms in this context!

Just out of curiosity - did you try hitting F5 when your new folders failed to appear?  If not, try it next time this happens.

(And of course remember what I said about having a poltergeist in your machine...)