Member Avatar for hartwell30

I ran Spybot today and casually clicked on Fix Problems when they told me they had found six things. I guess one of those 6 was critical, because after rebooting I was able to sign in and then not much else. My wallpaper came up and the mouse arrow and nothing else. I tried booting in safe mode and got the same result except minus the wallpaper. I tried going to task manager and running a new task, both sfc /scannow and msconfig. Both gave me messages that Windows could not open them as Windows did not know what programs created them. I am unsure how to go about restoring by using a System CD. When I do boot from my CD, I type R to get the Recovery Console and then I am asked to type a number that corresponds with which of a list of items I want to choose. The list is one items long and that item is C:\windows. When I chosse it then the line C:\windows comes up as if I am to type DOS commands in. I have no idea what it is for. I need help desperately please. What to do without reinstalling and losing my precious precious MP3 files andthe rest o' my life.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by dlh6213

Dani AI

Generated

Short practical summary and next steps (adds to , and ):

This kind of symptom — wallpaper and cursor but no explorer or program windows — commonly follows removal of registry entries or file associations that Windows needs to start the shell. Spybot's "Fix Problems" can remove entries that look suspicious but are actually used by Explorer/Winlogon. That fits what described. The safe priority is: (A) rescue personal files, then (B) try non-destructive repairs, then (C) do a repair (in-place) install if needed.

File-rescue options (do one before a reinstall)

  • If the machine will not run programs reliably, boot a Live CD/USB (Linux or Windows PE/BartPE). Mount the Windows partition and copy C:\Documents and Settings\<username>... (or C:\Users... on newer installs) to an external USB drive.
  • If you cannot boot from external media, remove the laptop HDD and attach it to another PC (USB enclosure or as a secondary drive) and copy your music and documents.
  • If you can get to Task Manager, try File -> New Task and run:
    explorer.exe

    If Explorer starts, immediately copy your files to external media or a network share.

Repair sequence to try (least to most invasive)

  • Try Last Known Good Configuration or System Restore from Safe Mode if those are available.
  • If Spybot is now usable, use its Recovery feature to undo the last fix (it stores what it changed).
  • If non-destructive fixes fail, perform a Windows repair (in-place) install with your XP CD to replace system files while keeping data and programs. After a repair you will need service packs and updates.

Prevention and notes

  • Always review Spybot results and create a System Restore point or full backup before mass-fixing. Keep a weekly copy of irreplaceable files on external media. If files were overwritten or deleted, stop using the disk and try a file-recovery tool or professional recovery to avoid overwriting lost data.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for Mastadex

You can always try nuking and reinstalling everything, but thats not always the case. If you have system restore enabled then you can tryt tunning that and restoring your OS to a previous date. This might be a serious problem if your logging in as administrator because if admin is screwd up then your whole computer is corrupted.

Member Avatar for Catweazle

describes how to perform an 'In Place upgrade', which is what you need to do. It reinstalls Windows over the top of itself, and corrects a lot of system corruption issues such as you have.

Member Avatar for hartwell30

thanks for the help, people. all is back to near normal now. lost some data but life is generally good and happy. thanks again!

Member Avatar for dlh6213

I'm just curious, is it possible spybot caused this? If not, any idea what did?

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Some of the changes you made with Spybot may have. If you have similar problems in future, run Spybot again and use the 'Recovery' feature to check. The feature reverses the changes you made ;)

Member Avatar for hartwell30

I have to assume that it was Spybot. As soon as I clicked on "fix problems" (post Spybot scan), I lost the ability to recognize or run most of the programs on my laptop. I tried to run Adaware from it's shortcut on my Launch bar, but it's source could not be found. I went to the actual source (adaware.exe) and it too could not be run. I thought rebooting might clear things up, but when I started back up...blank screen and much confusion ensued. Must have been something Spybot threw out that had attached to a critical file? Oh, and also must have been my ignorance in not reading Spybot's scan report more thoroughly.

commented: We can all learn from each others ignorance! +1
Member Avatar for dlh6213

When I first started using SpyBot, I read the scan reports before fixing anything, but since then I've just been letting it fix whatever it finds. I guess this isn't a good practice -- better go back to reviewing before fixing so I don't end up with this problem. Thanks for the awareness!

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