DarkPhoenix Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 Hi.I've undertaken the task of fixing the PC of a friend of a friend of mine, and basically, there is just one problem. One of the users works perfectly, as though nothing was wrong. Logging into any of the other three (not including a fourth which I added in order to test if the same problem was happening with new users) gives nothing but the desktop background. Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL gives the task manager. From there you can run anything that doesn't require explorer.exe to run. (Such as itself, control.exe, iexplore.exe and so on.) That includes explorer.exe. Trying to run explorer.exe gives a flash of the taskbar, which immediately disappears, i.e. explorer.exe quits immediately.I've tried doing a google search about it, and I've tried searching this forum, but to no avail. I've also tried doing the things I could think of, such as a system restore (failed, for some reason...) and running "sfc /scannow", which completed, but didn't help much. The event logs don't give any useful information, and I'm basically stumped. They claim it happened after their computer automatically updated Windows Media Player 10, but I think this is just a coincidence. I tried rolling back (uninstalling WMP 10 with Add/Remove programs) without it helping anything.If anyone could help me, I'd be grateful. If there's something you need me to find out, I'll try to look it up as it is requested. (as long as it has relevance) If I cannot fix it, I will have to reinstall the PC, but that's stressful both to them and to me, so I'd be hoping to avoid it at all costs. (See, they really like their computer the way it is, and I would have trouble returning it to its exact state, so I would like to avoid that.)Thanks in advance for any help, I'll be looking forward to hearing from you experts on this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 It sounds like corrupted user profiles.You said that you had created a new user profile that worked properly, correct? If so, your best bet is to create new users for the three that don't work. All the programs will still be there, although some settings may be lost in the process.Actually.. while you're at it... set up one Administrator account, and then create 4 new Limited User accounts. When it's time to update or install programs, tell the users that they will need to login to the Administrator account. This is good computing practice, as users are less likely to mess up critical settings from a limited account and certain types of malware won't have the proper permissions to do their dirty work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkPhoenix Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Oh, right, sorry. I forgot to mention how the user I added worked. It fails, just like the other three. In other words, adding a new user is no good, it fails too. And just in case: This is WinXP Home, so I cannot set rights on files and such. (and neither can they have done, I guess.)Yeah, I know that's good practice. I use Linux mostly myself, so I never run anything as root, unless for maintenance and configuration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zxian Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 (edited) It could be that the default profile is corrupt as well... something really botched must have happened...I can't exactly remember how, but you'll need to restore the default user profile. I think that if you delete it (delete the C:\Documents and Settings\Default User folder), Windows will create a new one when a new user is created. Don't shoot me if it doesn't work though... you'll probably want to test this out in VMWare.EDIT I take it back!!! Thanks to Jeremy (and a quick VMWare test) I can say that the above method does not work!!! Do not delete the Default User folder if you want to create a new user...I'll keep working on this though... I know your situation is salvegable (spelling?). Edited August 17, 2005 by Zxian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkPhoenix Posted August 18, 2005 Author Share Posted August 18, 2005 Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, I don't have all the time in the world (These people are uh... going abroad in not too long, and they want their PC to work before that.) I haven't had the chance to try out too many more things, so right now, I'm doing backups, and then I'll be trying a repair-installation. If that fails, I suppose I'm going to have to do a full-blown reinstallation. In any case, I should be done by the end of the day, or preferably before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjz Posted August 19, 2005 Share Posted August 19, 2005 How about deleting it and then running a system repair??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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