In news:EZWdnTPOHM1cVCTeRVn-hw@adelphia.com,
Don Cohen <doncohen@lens-cap.alltel.net> had this to say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
> I have run into trouble with my daughter's computer. It is running
> XP Home, and used for online chatting and email primarily. I run NAV
> 2005 and ZoneAlarm Free on it, and check periodically with AdAware
> and SpyBot S&D. It has SP2 installed, and configured to automatically
> install Critical Updates. But it's been a few months since I've been
> up there to check on it.
>
> Yesterday morning she told me it was starting to get messed up
> (non-technical term!). I'm pretty good about trouble-shooting
> hardware, software, etc., and have been doing this for about 15
> years, but this system shows an odd combination of problems. Here's
> a list:
> 1. Sometimes after a reboot, the desktop icons do not appear.
>
> 2. When "1" occurs, if I attempt to open Control Panel, nothing
> happens
> 3. When "1" occurs, if I try to access System Properties with the
> Windows Key+Break shortcut, I get an error message:
> c:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe
> The parameter is incorrect
>
> 4. The Quick Launch toolbar disappears after every reboot. I tried
> Doug Knox's fix (Windows XP doesn't remember user settings) without
> success.
> 5. When I re-enable Quick Launch, the desktop icon shows correctly,
> but all the others are "generic."
>
> 6. When I hit the Start button, the quick access entries at the top
> are also "generic."
>
> 7. Often, a right-click on the desktop produces no action whatsoever.
>
> 8. Often when trying to run a program from the Start Menu, "Explorer"
> crashes.
>
> I have rerun SpyBot, NAV2005 and AdAware, found a few cookie files
> and a registry entry or two, but this hasn't changed the problem
>
> The biggest suspect: ZoneAlarm. Apparently at some point recently,
> she inadvertently took the bait and did a trial upgrade to ZoneAlarm
> Security Suite. The trial period ran out (all unbeknownst to me),
> and I think this is about when this all started to go down the tubes.
> One of the first things I tried to do was uninstall it. My first
> attempt was unsuccessful with "Explorer" crashing.
>
> I then booted into Safe Mode in order to uninstall ZASecurity Suite,
> which apparently completed uneventfully. But after reboot, the above
> problems still recur sporadically.
>
> I don't know if this is residue from ZoneAlarm or not, but something
> very funky is going on, and I'm not sure where to go next to try and
> repair it. I guess I could try a "Repair" to XP Home via the install
> CD, but then I'll have to reinstall SP2 and all the updates. I'd
> rather find a more 'surgical' repair if one is possible.
>
> Thanks for wading through this, and for any suggestions you might
> have.
As it's XP Home you needn't worry about EFS. Thank you for all the
information, if only every post was as complete but not full of information
not needed. I suspect that you're daughter's profile has, for one reason or
another, become corrupted. It's a fairly mundane fix.
Corrupt Profile:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general...t_profile.html
--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/
"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes