can't restore HELP

[charlie-s]

Dell 8300 xp home sp2

I was just tweaking and stuff, reading all your great info trying to speed it up.
Well I installed a program that filters the start up's and running processes since I'm not to bright and didn't want to shut off the wrong stuff.
I removed the program and with it 2 rows of programs ( start/ all programs/) including all system tools and more.
I tried to restore but it won't restore to any points going back a week.
I'm freaking out, I found a bunch of stuff in the recycle I restored but no changes.
What have I done? what do I do now?

I'll be up all night hoping for your help

Charlie

the name of the program that started this nightmare is Absolute startup

[Xtothel]

what exactly is your problem? Nothing is showing up in your START>ALL programs?

[charlie-s]

Yes, what is left they just say empty, all but the games.

[charlie-s]

everything says empty when I run the curser over it. Where the heck did it all go? i had alot of stuff

[charlie-s]

I right click the start button, select all users/ programs and it lists the programs folders. I open it, nothing inside click/properties it says 0
Everthing, m-works, photo suit's accesories, tools, all of it is empty. I'm gonn puke.

[Xtothel]

well, the good news is that no programs got deleted if that's what happened. But i think you would have to rebuild the start menu yourself. Its basically a whole bunch of short cuts. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs is where all that stuff are, so i think you would just create a while bunch of shortcuts and paste them in there. I don't know what much, but at least you can stop freaking out now ;)

You still can accesss your programs, just go to C:\Program Files.

[charlie-s]

I'm gonna start checking it out now. I hope it's that easy
Thanks, I think my hot flashes are going away.

Why won't it let me restore?

[charlie-s]

No Go. I just did all that. ALL the folders are empty. I hope that wasent the only option- got another one---- please?

[Xtothel]

okay charlie, new plan, you do see all the programs in the C:\Program Files folder right?

if so, open that folder, and drag the programs you need into the start menu, so drag it over the start button, wait until it pops up, drag it over ALL PROGRAMS, wait until it pops up and place it in there. You can delte the empty ones :) i think that's gonna work *nod nod*

you can't restore might be because you don't have system restore turned on, or when you cleaned you PC you cleaned out all the restore points

[charlie-s]

ok i got the programs in c/programs so they are not gone..cool. I've just never really navigated around in here much., do I drag the whole folder say my epson (printer) folder or what? Does it apply it automaticaly where it goes. I'll try. What about system tools and all that. This is a mess. I'm gonna start.

[charlie-s]

this is what I've done with just 1 so far and it worked. start/all programs/ rightclick say imesh/explore then moved the folder from c/programs/imesh to the explore folder. It worked. BUT should I move the folder or copy it? if I copy it wont I have like 2 or 3 floating around now taking up too much space? Moving it would leave me with a empty programs folder.

[charlie-s]

I'm getting nowhere, really need some help.
This can't be the right way, copy/paste. I mean half the folders in the startup file arent in the c/programs. like start up, accesories and then some like my canon has so many files in c/program I don't even know what ones to copy into the start file. Same with works and my epson printer- my god that has hundreds.
I'm fallin apart, the wife has school tomarro she's gonna wake up and kick my

What is the trick I'm missing to fixing this.

I dont have IM but i do have a phone
Thanks
Charlie 248.762.0721

[charlie-s]

good morning all. I have gotton nowhere.
Heres what someone frome dell's forum said:

I'm more than a little confused. If you say you can find these files/folders elsewhere, then do this. Right-click on an empty space on the desktop. Then ☞ New ☞ folder. Rename the new folder to 'Programs'. Go to the folder that has all the programs you want and right-click ☞ ' select all ' ☞ and copy / paste them to the folder you just created. Then using Windows Explorer, go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu and then copy /paste the programs folder you just created to that location.

This is taking for ever to copy all this and doesnt seem right.Should i post this somewhere else or start another post to get some help?

[charlie-s]

this isent the right thing to do. Now start/all programs has hundreds of folders and screens under each program. I got the blue screen of death. Should I do a clean install? I don't even know how.

[J_Kay]

Do you login to XP as an Administrator? What I mean is, if you goto Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts does it list underneath your login as an Administrator? This could be the start of your problems. If you are not very familiar with the operating system (i.e. file structure, what not to delete, what to delete) then you need to be in a different user mode. This can help prevent from making a mistake and causing you to reformat.

I don't think you should give up and do a clean install yet, unless you are really hampered by this and cannot function otherwise. If you need to do a clean install, save anything you can (word documents, music, movies, whatever else is important) then insert your windows XP CD, and reboot your computer....you'll see a prompt that says, "Press any key to boot from CD...." Press any key and then follow the instructions. Hope this helps......

[charlie-s]

I am signed in as administrator. I was mearly making mild changes read here in xp tweaks and the cause as far as I can see was me removing a simple program from add/remove programs.

[gemini4]

First of all if I understand well you started copying the contents of your c:\program files folder into the c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs folder?

If you did I hope you didn't delete the contents of your c:\program files

What you're missing are the shortcuts. Now if you copied the contents of c:\program files into c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs you copied the programs where the shortcuts should be.

Please tell me if I got the situation clear and also if you deleted or moved anything out of the c:\program files folder.

[charlie-s]

I dident delete anything. I put the original shortcuts back into c/document and settings/allusers/start/programs. I now have a copied folder of c/programs. I am basically right where I started in this post and have changed nothing.

here is what I posted in another forum, maybe it will be a little more clear and up to speed

start/all programs--I run the curser over the programs listed and they are all empty

c/documents and settings/all users/start/programs---has all the folders(most) but are empty.

c/programs---has all the program files but each file contains so many other files so the copy paste thing just isent working.Plus it doesent contain some program files missing like start up, stystem tools and other.

It wont restore to any point.

all histories(works,word ect.) are gone. I can find the files but they won't open because there is no program.

This all started when I uninstalled a program, absolute startup? in the add/remove program

[gemini4]

Ok. Well now you have to manually recreate you shortcuts. For example to recreate a shortcut for Word go in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10 look in there for Winword right click on it and choose Send/Shortcut to Desktop.

Close all your windows and then move the new created shortcut in c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs

Do the same with each program you want to put in there. Remember you only need to create shortcuts to the main files of the program. For example you don't want to create shortcuts to all the folders and files in c:\program files\Internet Explorer you only want to create shortcuts to this file: c:\program files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe.

You mentioned that you posted on the Dell forum. If you have a Dell and your computer is new enough and you don't have any data to save I might have a faster solution for you (less than 15 minutes)

[charlie-s]

the computer is 4 years old, alot of stuff.
I'll try what you said. sure is alot
what about system accessories/tools and more. In start/all programs there is alot of programs, some that arent in c/programs.

[gemini4]

well for those accessories and system tools you have to go in control panel/add remove programs and choose add remove windows components on the left.
Take the check mark out off all the components except the etworking services and click next and apply all settings.

Then click on add/remove windows components again and check back everyting that you want click next and apply all settings. Then let me know if you're missing anything else.

[charlie-s]

crap, this is insane. It took me a half hour just to do Creative's program. There is like 15 shortcuts. shortcuts inside shortcuts. Is this my only option. I can't imagine what my photo programs, microsoft programs are gonna be like.
What about the folders that say accessories, startup, games, administrative tools. All these are empty too but not in c/programs.

how hard is a clean install?

[charlie-s]

I did a clean install. went well for my first one. Still some small problems updating drivers for creative. It is telling me there is a active x problem/ administrator. I have no idea what that is, gonna start reading.
Some of of my games are not wanting to run or even load. Maybe i havent installed something or tweaked windows too soon

I'll start another topic post