Windows 98se causing problems...again.

del12003

Regedit is very forgiving of syntax errors - if it doesn't understand something it just simply ignores it. It appears that you have removed markp62's '[' and ']'. Every line will be ignored and only REGEDIT4 will be acknowledged. REGEDIT4 on its own is enough to get a merge confirmation dialog even if nothing actually gets merged.

Forget copy and paste - if there are any hidden formatting characters then they will mess up Regedit. [instead of 'mess' I wrote s c r e w (sans spaces) and got *****. Is that bad language in the US? If it is I apologise for beating the system using spaces]

Type the script from scatch using Notepad and make sure you have at least one blank line at the end otherwise the last entry will be ignored by Regedit. I've seen so many folks try and merge say 10 entries and wonder why only 9 got merged.

"Explore and Open do not appear upon right clicking start menu. "

These are found in the \Software\Classes\Folder\Shell key in the registry. I forget what the default settings are - I don't use Explorer's file manager's routine. I cannot figure out how they were removed. Perhaps someone, perhaps markp62, can post the default values.

It seems to me that you have had and possibly still have some malicious code on board. This code, if it is still on board, may well remove any correction you make in its initialisation section rendering all tips to restore as fruitless.

Nobody has come back on the BHO I mentioned and Internat.exe.

 

Those brackets needed to be there, they tell Regedit when importing the file that it is a Key, or the things that look like folders in Regedit. Without them, I can only guess that nothing was actually done.

The Shell Context Menu on the Start button can get real complicated as there are a two Keys that can apply here. The HKLM\Software\Classes\Folder\Shell and HKLM\Software\Classes\Directory\Shell. I would have to look at mine more carefully to post the Keys, Values and Value Data on this, as I have Explore from Here, Command Prompt Here, Scan with AVG, Find, ARJ Folder [like Winzip, without the user MRU lists.], where CLSID's are involved.
However, the disappearance of these at the Start button can be caused by a System Policy done by one of your tweak programs. I would look into that first, or is caused from the below paragraphs.

Speaking of CLSID's, I could not find one pertaining to the BHO without a name. I would use Hijack this to disable it. It is a Browser Helper Object, and should not harm IE to disable.
Gammaepsilon, may be right about the Internat.exe, Pacs Portal led me to this page and this page on it. Both are trojans. The third possibility is for international languages. The first page says it gives a hacker full access, the second says it steals passwords. This could be related to the BHO.
Housecall, online AV scan
Online Trojan Scan

 

markp62

Thanks for the Online Trojan Scan link. I couldn't get it to work at first then the penny dropped - I rarely use IE and the scan needs IE to be running.

One word of warning to those that haven't used the service - it takes a few minutes so put the kettle on or grab a coffee.

My system was found to be Trojan free. The question now is whether del12003's kit is also free.

 

Markp62,

I'll repeat the registry key proceedure tonight with the brackets and see what happens. As a precaution I've backed up the registry.

Computer has been scanned for viruses with McAfee and Panda, will try housecall next, so far so good.


Thanks for the info.


del12003

 

del12003

Try markp62's Trojan scan link first - AV scanners won't find Trojans.

 

del12003

Have you checked the Startup tab of MSCONFIG to see if Scanregisrty shows up and has a check mark in the box. ?

If no check in the box then it does not matter what you do with the Registry Scanregistry will not run.

If scanregistry does not show in the startup tab of msconfig then something is wrong in the reg.

BillyBob

 

Please disregard my last reply. I did not remember what was said in an earlier post about some things not showing in msconfig.

But the more I read over this entire post the more I think an overtop re-install/repair may be needed.

BillyBob

 

I tried the registry key proceedure again and it worked, both systray and scanreg now appear in System Configuration Utility startup.

Now if I could only get the open and explore to work when right clicking the start menu.


No viruses found, scanned with Panda, Housecall and McAfee. No Trojans either, here is the result:

Starting scan at 21:59:33:670...
Scan Memory
Memory not infected
Scan folder: 'A:\', recursive
Unable to scan A:\ - The device is not ready.
Scan folder: 'C:\', recursive
Scan folder: 'D:\', recursive
Scan folder: 'E:\', recursive
Unable to scan E:\ - The device is not ready.
Scan folder: 'F:\', recursive
Unable to scan F:\ - The device is not ready.
Finished scan at 22:37:30:220
Total number of files is 36891, number of infected files is 0
Average files per second is 16, average file size is 17574676



It is still a win98se mystery how this all came about, systray & scanreg missing from msconfig startup, and open and explore not accesible by right clicking start menu.


Btw, the internat.exe appearing in startup is due to keyboard language issue, English and French.

Next I will look into removing some of these tweak programs.


Thanks again for the help


del12003

 

I am going to bet that a System Policy was put into affect, this file will undo it.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoViewContextMenu "=dword:00000000

Reboot. By the way, can you right click on the taskbar itself? If not, add this below the NoViewContextMenu line.

"NoTrayContextMenu "=dword:00000000

 

I was able to right click on the taskbar, therefor I applied the registry key as indicated above, less the line "NoTrayContextMenu "=dword:00000000.

Unfortunately the open and explore are still not available to click on in the startup menu, I can live with that as explore is accessible in other ways.

Markp62, thank you very much


del12003

 

del12003

markp62 followed my train of thought earlier. I'm going to follow his now.

In System policies we can hide individual drives. If the boot drive is hidden then both Open and Explore will cease to appear on right clicking the Start Menu. How did that happen? Goodness knows - as weird as losing the two Run key entries.

Anyway, merge the following into your registry

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDrives "=dword:00000000

and reboot your system.

[Don't forget to make sure that there's a blank line terminator else the entry will be ignored]

If this doesn't work then get back to us because I think we are getting close.

 

del12003

Not quite there yet.

I exported the relevant section of my registry and hid my drive C:

Open and Explore became grayed out.

Initially you said "I can't access Explorer and Open from the Start Menu" and later said "Explore and Open do not appear upon right clicking start menu. "

The above fix will only work if they are grayed out. It will not work if they are not in the registry in the first place. I deleted mine and rebooted with C: unhidden and they were not restored in the Start menu. Good job I exported because my registry entries are not standard!

I've stripped my Open and Explore of what I think has been added to the default setup and get the following.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\open\command]
@= "C:\\WINDOWS\\Explorer.exe /idlist,%I,%L "

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\explore\command]
@= "C:\\WINDOWS\\Explorer.exe /e,/idlist,%I,%L "

I'm using Classes Root as there is less typing. Classes Root is a subset of Local Machine - touch the first and we automatically touch the second.

If markp62 will look at his reg we may find the above or a tweak may be neccessary.

After merging, reboot. I'll wager that you will be back in business. If the entries are grayed out then the previous post will correct that but I reckon they will not be grayed out.

If you want to get really clever you can customize the Explorer switches:

Switches 1

Switches 2

Switches 3

Switches 3 is the horses mouth - MS.

Cannot see where the %I and %L comes in but I'm not an Explorer expert - I haven't used it for years - I use Directory Opus 6 which smokes Explorer off the planet. Opus traps calls to Explorer so maybe some of the switches are Opus and some are duplicates. I'm guessing now so I'll shut up.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replies.


Let me clarify, open and explore appear in the Start menu but are grayed out, therefor not accessible. Sorry for not being specific.


del12003

 

OK

In that case the "NoDrives" fix should do the trick. However, since you have TweakUI on board, open the 'My Computer' tab. There you should find, for some reason, that C: is unchecked. Select C: and any other drives that you have which may have become unchecked and reboot.

You should be back in business without any further ado.

It doesn't follow that TweakUI has been used in error - TweakUI simply reflects the state of "NoDrives" (with a hex valuedata) in graphical form.

 

Gammaepsilon is on the right track here. Whenever you go into TweakUI and and click on the My Computer tab, and uncheck any of the drives, so they do not appear, the Context Menu on the Start Button concerning Open and Explore will be greyed out.
My first impression was that the Context Menu did not appear at all.
Those Reg entries are exactly as mine.

 

Verified the TweakUI my computer tab, only drives A: to M: were checked off, checked off the remaining N: to Z: and rebooted.

The Open and Explore in the Context Menu of the Start Button are back in business, they are now bold print and accessible.
Bye bye grey, well almost. lol

Oh the win98se mysteries.


Thanks one and all for the help.



del12003