Blank desktop

[grasshoppa]

When I load windows all I get is the picture on my desktop.

I can't get into windows through safe mode either.

I've tried to reinstall,but in the last few minutes of install I receive this message:

An error occurred loading C:\windows\system\shdocvw.dll The file may not have been installed or it has been corrupted.

With the same text I also see the same message for shdoc401.dll.

I only see these when trying to reinstall,there are no messages upon restart,just a desktop with no icons.

Without being able to get into windows I can't even run my antivirus.

My win 98 install disc is actually stored on my computer under Windows\Win 98\setup, which I can access through dos.How do I fix,delete, or run a

program to do this for me through dos?

Or on the other hand am I looking in the wrong direction?

Of course I'm writing from a dfferent computer on account that mine is currently in limbo.I really don't want to lose the info/personal files I've aquired over the years if there is a possible sollution.

I come to you because I'm beyond my limits of computer knowledge,I eagerly await any of the sagely advice you can offer.

Thankyou in advance,

from a lowly amatuer.

[keytotime]

It's mean's your cd got messed up. I suggest startting over from scratch.

[Crash&Burn]

Make a fresh copy of your install files from CD, you can do this from Dos proper.

Then try again. Also for future reference you might want to look at AVG antivirus which can do a number of things directly from DOS.

If I recall shdocvw is related to icons or icon display.

Personally I'd just back up the files in question, zip or rar them to preserve LFN. Not much good can come from installing the OS over on top of itself.

[grasshoppa]

If I were to have this AVG on a disk could I run it without being able to access windows?And,if it was a virus that is causing my problem,would it alleviate my problem?

How do I "back up the files in question"and what is LFN?

Forgive all my quetions but I'm in over my head here.

on a similar problem,in a forum,I saw something about renaming a win.** file before reinstalling,or extracting the files through dos,does any of these sound familiar?

[eidenk]

Hi Grasshoppa,

It seems some files could be corrupted on your Hard drive. Try reinstalling from the CD rather than from the Hard disk and as there is apparently corruption problems, do a thorough scandisk before as to fix eventual bad sectors.

[Crash&Burn]

LFN: Long File Name.

If you backup files from dos they will only have the 8.3 names. Thus highly recommended to archive them instead. Especially if there are files you definitely want to preserve prior to reinstalling your OS.

And has been a while since I ran AVG from 98/Dos, but it should be able to check for the worst-case scenario viruses - like bootsector et al.