System Files Problems

A couple things are missing from the control panel and I guess the system32 folder.

- The calculator comes up with a missing shortcut dialog.
- There is no mouse settings control panel icon
- Trying to enable the sound tray icon results in the error, "Windows cannot display the volume control on the taskbar because the Volume Control program has no been installed. To install it, use Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. "
- At boot, there is an error message before the Windows XP logo, that says something about BOOT.INI

Thanks in advance for any help with these niggling problems.

 

Have you been to Add or Remove Programs and in the left-hand list, checked if you can install the volume control and calculator.

Has the mouse icon been changed by a "helper" program for the mouse? (So if it is, say, a Logictech mouse, look for a Logictech icon.)

You will need to let us know what the Boot.ini error(?) says. You can see what is in the Boot.ini file by going to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> Startup and Recovery button -> Edit button. You can copy and paste the contents here.

Are you using a cleaning program or tweaking program that may have removed these items?

Matt

 

The 'Startup and Recovery" button comes up with an error when I click it. The error can be dismissed with the OK button, but the settings window is pretty inert. Trying to open boot.ini by other means results in a missing file error.

There's no Logitech icon or anything related to the mouse. TweakUI has all of the icons enabled, but the mouse (main.cpl) isn't in the list. The utilities I have are: Spybot S&D, Speedfan, CCleaner, TweakUI, and JKDefrag.

As for the volume icon, I can't find it in Add/Remove Windows Components.

I got the calculator back by uninstalling and then reinstalling from i386 it from the Add/Remove Windows Components App

 

What I might try is making a new User Profile and seeing how things work there.

 

How d'ya do that?

 

Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Create a new account.

 

That didn't work

 

Next I think I would try System Restore and System File Checker
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747

I would be running out of ideas after that, but I don't think I would like having my system that way and would look at doing a repair reinstall of Windows.

I would just add a word of caution about using tweaking programs and registry cleaners.

Matt

 

Well, this is unfortunate. I disabled system restore and I don't have a XP CD. My Acronis backups from spring don't have a copy of boot.ini either. Must've gone bye-bye a long time ago, and I never noticed since I always hibernate and just noticed the boot.ini corrupt error.