iexplore.exe always running?!

As soon as I logon to windows iexplore.exe appears in task manager. If I open Internet Explorer then another instance of iexplore.exe is open too. Now, the file is the original and safe IE executable (path= C:\program files\Internet Explorer), checked with SysInspector). but I wonder why it starts with windows.

can anybody help me? I hope this isn't malware related.

 

I saw a similar thing a while ago, with Opera though. Several (2 or 3) instances of it were running.
It turned out that the motherboard drivers (integrated nforce NIC drivers) installed something called "Network Acces Protection" which in turn installed an Apache server. Once I uninstalled this "Network Access Protection" (so the Apache with it as well) things returned to normal.

 

this is the HijackThis log:

[HJT log snipped as per policy - Blue]

 

ESET SysInspector log much more appreciated But not here (as per Wilders policy)

 

What OS? Vista runs the sidebar as an IE process.

 

Are you sure ? What part ... ?

I have no such thing , Sidebar is a sidebar.exe + I have 2 other IE processes - the real IE ones that are here now just because I have IE running in Protected mode , not because of the Sidebar