Member Avatar for Lab_AssistantJD

Hi there.

I am fairly new with editing windows... thus is the root of my problem.

Okay, so I was wanting to change my windows "Start Orb" on Windows 7 64-bit. I followed the directions by changing the Bitmaps: 6801, 6805, 6809 images to the one I had selected.
I changed it using "Restorator 2007" I pretty much just followed the directions from this site: http://mintywhite.com/windows-7/7customization/change-windows-7-start-orb/

And now.. all I have is a pitch black desktop with absolutely nothing on it... nope, nada, nothing.. I can still pull up certain files using "Task Manager" but when I try to use "Run new task" and type in "explorer, or explorer.cust (which is what I renamed the explorer file) the system tells me that it cannot locate the program. *sigh*

is there a way I can solve this?

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Modifying the Start Orb by editing a system EXE or its resources often leaves the shell unlaunchable if explorer.exe was renamed or its resources were damaged. A blank desktop with Task Manager still available is a classic sign that the shell never started. The steps below expand on points raised by , , and and give concrete, low-risk recovery actions.

First-recovery (fastest): use Task Manager to open an elevated Command Prompt, locate any renamed explorer file and restore the .exe name, then start the shell. From Task Manager: File → Run new task → enter cmd and enable administrative privileges. In the prompt run:

dir C:\Windows\explorer*
ren C:\Windows\explorer.cust explorer.exe
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Adjust the path/filename if the renamed file uses a different name or if Windows is on another drive letter.

If explorer.exe is missing or corrupted, run System File Checker while Windows is running:

sfc /scannow

If Windows cannot run normally, boot the Windows Recovery Environment (Repair your computer) and run SFC offline:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows

If SFC cannot restore explorer.exe, restore a clean copy from identical Windows 7 x64 media or from another machine with the same service pack, or use System Restore from the Recovery Environment. If the orb package came from an untrusted source (as warned), perform an offline malware scan with rescue media before restoring modified files.

Prevention: always copy the original explorer.exe to a backup file before editing (for example explorer_backup.exe), create a System Restore point or system image, and test cosmetic resource edits in a virtual machine or with a dedicated orb-changer tool rather than editing the live shell.

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Member Avatar for flagstar

Run new task again but this time, browse and direct it to where the explorer execute should be...

default would be %windir%\WINDOWS

You should always make a restore point or at least some backup before you start to modified how Windows operate because something like this MAY happen. That way, when modification failed, you can take your step back and restore before the modification failed...

Member Avatar for blackcathacker

There could be a virus, trojan, backdoor, malware, spyware, or other nasty things on the program you downloaded, because the site doesn't appear to be legit.

Member Avatar for caperjack

funny thing to me is almost every comment made on the site had a problem ,and you still went and tried to do it .

try booting to safe mode and do a system restore back a few days

Edited by caperjack because: n/a
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