Shortcut Issues?

[greendragon737]

Ok, my father is having some issues with his computer. None of the shortcuts on the desktop will work, his e-mail account on outlook express is not working, and opening up things most of the time won't work. I've run quite a few programs including norton and none of them seem to come up with anything. It just comes up with this popup "Access to the specified device, path, or file is denied." The only way that I can run anything is by going to start and run. The os he is using is windows 2000 professional. Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

[Sylvander]

My guess is that his registry is messed up, so lots of things don't work as they aught.

e.g. If you right-click on a link for a program and choose "Properties", look at the "target", then click "Find Target...", does it find the program ok?
And can you then run the Program?
If you can, then probably the registry settings for handling ".lnk" files is messed up.
I don't know much about Win2000, so to give my Win98SE as an example...
1. If I go to "Start->Run" and type regedit and click OK, regedit runs.
2. I then go to "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk" to read the "Default->Data", which is lnkfile.
3. So I scroll further down in that key to the lnkfile sub-key and all looks well [see image below].
4. So I copy the number of the key {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} mentioned there and "Edit->Find..." it.
Continued on next posting...

[Sylvander]

See image below of what I found...
I think this is what specifies what and how the lnk shortcut files should be handled, and his are probably not being handled as they should.
Note that shell32.dll is to be used [by Explorer.exe (the Windows shell) in my case].
If your fathers' registry settings should be the same as mine, then I could export my settings and post the files here and you could import them into his registry and his shortcuts should then work.

But this is a bigger problem than just this tiny item.

What you really need to do is restore his registry to...
a. A working state.
b. The way it was some time back when it had not yet been messed up.

Even better would be to restore the whole of the system partition contents [using an image backup perhaps].
That way, [provided his hardware now matches the way his hardware was, when the backup was made] all of the software components will match and be a complete, working system.

Does he have the means to do the above?

[Sylvander]

See How to restore the whole registry (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322755/en-us).
And How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/231777/).

Repairing, recovering, and restoring an installation of Windows 2000 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268106/en-us).

[Sylvander]

Here are the "Properties" for my "Hijack This" shortcut to the program executable file.

[greendragon737]

Thanks for all the help but now he has an even worse problem... He can't even get windows to open. When I turn the computer on it goes through everything as normal but then it flashes the screen for a couple of seconds saying something about not being able to find autochk or something like that I don't really remember. Anyways, I just honestly have no idea what to do. I would just format the hard drive and start over but he has a lot of stuff on there that he doesn't want to lose...

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Sylvander]

In those circumstances I'd be inclined to get a new HDD [how small/old is the existing HDD?], take out the old, put the new in its place [jumpered as master on the Primary IDE controller], make multiple partitions and format them, make a new, clean installation of Windows 2000, install his programs anew, then connect the old HDD as slave and copy over all the files needed.

And then IMMEDIATELY begin the business of making image backups of the contents of all his partitions, at strategic points, as he moves forward in time.
You could either do this to a partition on the new HDD kept for that purpose...
Or else you could [perhaps immediately, or at some later time when all is ready] repartition and reformat the old HDD and move the backup image files to [a folder on a partition on] that drive.

So he'd have a nice fresh, new installation of Windows, with no bloat, and no infection, and no chaos, and what is more, he'd have a backup of that and could go back to that at any time.
And as he moves forward making changes [for better or worse], and making backups...
Should he need to, or desire to, he could go back to any former point in time [the software arrangement that matches that] of his choosing.
He should keep a log and/or some note [perhaps a text file that matches the image file] that tells what the sofware was like at that backup point.

e.g.
Here are the most recent entries in my own handwritten log...

May 27 : Image of C: to G: = ok.
Jun 5 : Installed "Macromedia Flash Player" v7.0.63.0 = ok.
Jun 7 : Image of C: to G: = ok.
Jun 7 : Image of E: to G: = ok.
Jun 17 : Installed "Macromedia Flash Player" v8.0.24.0 = ok.
Jun 19 : Image of C: to G: = ok.
Jun 22 : Image of D: to G: = ok.
Jun 22 : Image of F: to G: = ok.

Notice that if I want to eliminate any installation, I only need restore the backup of C: immediately prior.

Here are my backups...

[Sylvander]

A fairly important part of the strategy is...

1. To move ALL the data files off C: to keep it "lean & mean".
C: only holds Windows & Programs & swapfile & configuration files [registry plus] so that when you restore C: all the personal data that changes by the second [like emails, address book, My Documents, favourites] remain untouched by making the system files "jump back" to when all was well.

2. You hold different types of data on different partitions according to their needs, and make backups of these as is appropriate.
Certain [types of] files that don't change very often could be held on a dedicated partition and backups made rather infrequently.
The system partition would probably have backups made most frequently, but because the partition is as small as can be sensibly arranged, it can be defragmented and backed up quickly and easily.

This may give you some idea why I'm uninclined to "patch and mend" an arrangement that I consider to be...
...Less than ideal?
When you COULD set up a new arrangement for future use that would make your father invulnerable to software problems.
I've been using this system for quite some time now [many months or a couple of years?], and have never yet come across a software problem it didn't solve quickly and routinely and easily. :D :cool:

And remember...
This will backup ANY kind of partition, holding ANY Operating System, and works outside of the OS [Windows?] environment [the backup program would load from a bootable floppy or CD], and restore a working system of software to the system partition even when the OS [ANY OS] won't boot.

[greendragon737]

Ok, everything is well now :) Thank you!

[Sylvander]

What did you do to fix it? :confused:

[greendragon737]

Well, I tried installing Windows XP on the second hard drive but it kept freezing up when it started copying files. So, I finally just formatted his old hard drive and installed windows xp on that. I didn't want to do that because he lost a LOT of stuff but he also lost even more junk that wasn't doing anything anyways. At least now he can have a fresh start and keep it better condition.

[Sylvander]

Ouch, I hope it doesn't hurt as much as I would hurt on losing some of the more vital data from my HDD. :(

The fresh start will be good. :D

[greendragon737]

Ohh yes... it very much hurt! but I think he'll be happy with it. I know that its running a lot faster now and a lot of the junk is off of it. So I think it'll be ok... Thanks again! :)