Missing web page graphics, boxed texts and bckgd colors in reinstalled XP

Hi everyone,

After installing Avira anti-virus on recommendation it completely cleared out essential files including System Restore and Windows Mediaplayer, making IE practically unusable. I uninstalled Avira tout suite, but had no System Restore to fall back on to try to recover these files.

The harddrive went to the repair shop for uninstallation and reinstallation of XP from the Windows CD. Unfortunately, it was impractical for me to stand over the repairman for a few hours to watch his every move.

After retrieving the harddrive and deleting some extras which he'd put on and which I didn't want (such as Skype and a few others), I discovered that in all web pages, including my Yahoo! homepage, the clickable graphics, boxed texts and original web page background colors are all missing (including this BBS page).

I've spent the past two days searching the Net, MS Support and BBS forums today, but have found no practical answers, or only those answers which I've already tried but which didn't work.

I really don't want to trust this to any external repair shop again.

How can I get back the clickable graphics, boxed texts and original web page background colors? How can I get my web pages back to how they were before I installed Avira? Can anyone offer a solution, please ?

(An added complication is that there is no backslash on my keyboard. It was replaced by the hash, which was replaced by the £ sign, even though there are two forwardslash keys, one of which whoever did this could have used!)

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Pete C,

Thanks for your response.

The hard drive wasn't physically removed; it was the container with the drive that went to the shop, the one that has all the plugs in the back. Sorry, I called it the 'hard drive' because that's what everyone around me was calling it.

Yes, it was a registered Windows CD that was reinstalled, complete with product key. I left the other Windows CDs with him: Drivers & Utilities and Fax Talk. I saw the screen working, so assumed he had installed from these discs.

I should have added in my main post that although I can't see any graphics or boxed text my mouse pointer can; if I roll the mouse pointer over where I remember graphics and boxed text to be in often-used sites, the pointer turns into the hand and a little box opens to tell me what it is. But with this unfamiliar BBS site, I'm working 'blind' so to speak, because I don't know what it should look like. All there is is a white background and main text.

 

Hi Pete C,

IE7 is my only browser, used for going into my favourite sites, and the problem is on all the sites.

Somewhere along the way, I also lost my Windows Mediaplayer9 which would open automatically when I clicked on a downloaded book from Audible.com. But I see from one of the MS sites that wmp9 is no longer available for XP users, so I don't know if it was MS that took it off. Is this the 'other areas of Windows' that you mean? There was a refusal error when I tried to download wmp10, and wmp 11 refuses to accept my Windows is a genuine authenticated version, and so will not open for me.

Also, in MS Office Word 2003 the toolbars and margins have come up in awful shades of brown and beige. I'm still looking for a way to change them.

Prior to installing Avira, everything was working perfectly as far as access went, but yes, the computer did seem to be infected. McAfee was installed prior to that but it suddenly switched itself off and I couldn't access their site. Hence the trial with Avira.

Quite a bundle of problems, yes?

Thanks for your welcome, btw. I should have responded to that first, but my mind was full of how to write down the problem(s) coherently. Hope you'll excuse the lapse.

 

'Somewhat of an understatement' - Yes, I'm good at those lol.

All unwanted extras were taken off through the 'Add/Remove' program - all were peripheral extras, like the Skype and a radio player. Not part of MS.

To be fair on the repairman, there was a problem with wmp11 before all this hassle with Avira. He definitely installed the correct version from the authentic CD, because MS both authenticated and activated XP with no problem. In fact, MS authenticated it twice, because I went back to check after wmp11 refused to open. The connection between MS authentication and wmp11 seems to be broken or faulty.

The CD does belong to me; it's the same that was on the computer when I bought it, complete with product key. A full retail installation CD.

It was made clear that the old Windows was to be uninstalled and a complete reinstallation made, so I'm assuming he made a clean install with format. It would have been better if I could have stayed with him, but aside from getting under the feet of everyone else who works there it just was not possible from the time point of view.

I've since installed Avast av and Malwarebytes. According to them, the system is now clean.

As for the 'Reset', I tried that and it made things worse.

At least this time I have 'System Restore' up and running. I downloaded IE8, thinking that would solve it, but it didn't. Also, the loading slowed to a crawl so I uninstalled it.

I suspect that there is a little button somewhere, which if activated or deactivated, would clear up this problem immediately.

I wish...

Will try to fill in as much of the System specs as possible.

 

It's possible that your XP Themes are not working correctly. This can be cured by running Restore Themes Functionality that is item # 187 (left side) on Kelly's site.

Or you can get it directly from HERE.

It's a reg file so download it and double-click to run. Allow the action to proceed when asked.

 

Pete C - All clear in Device Manager.
Install CD is XP SP2. I wanted to get this missing graphics etc. sorted before I
download SP3, which I had pre-Avira!

Surferdude2 - That was a good idea about restoring themes functionality. I did as you
instucted, but there is no difference to the screen. Does it only kick in on
restart? Thanks, anyway.

What puzzles me about this is that the graphics, boxed texts and background colour are there, on the screen - because my mouse can 'see' them. They're just not visible to view.

It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I can't help but think that the explanation and solution are going to be really really simple if ever I get that far.

Thanks for all your efforts so far.

 

Hi Nicolatesla,

The problem is - sorry, I should have written another problem is - that post-Avira System Restore wouldn't open; all I got was a blank screen. Now I have it back it only shows November 13 as the first restore point. There is nothing before that. Good idea though, thanks. All contributions gratefully received, as they say.

Love your user name, btw!

 

Sometimes, if you look in drive C, (administrator or your name) "documents and settings" you may find lost or omitted files.
However, it appears that the evil Avira has wiped out your system pretty well.
And because of this contamination, you will nearly always need to reformat your drive, since Avira (it's a virus) will not allow you to delete it. It will always be in there goofing with your system until you completely reformat and install a new operating system. And it will most likely be sending your personal information to the perpetrators.
I advise you to change ALL of your bank account passwords, and any other passwords or numbers that could be used or attacked.
I'm not kidding. Don't wait to do this.

 

Hi everyone,

First of all, apologies for the gap in replying, but...

PeteC - I hadn't actually rebooted when I logged back in and saw your question, but I did that immediately. Surferdude's suggestion had worked - up to a point. The taskbar came back the same as it does in 'Safe Mode' i.e. minus the usual MS blue and fonts. The main screen was the same - toolbar and taskbar backgrounds were the same as in my Word program now; a muddy browny grey. It wouldn't change, even after I used Advanced in Display. And the graphics, boxed texts and background colour still hadn't come back. So I did a System Restore, which brought back the original task/toolbars, BUT the Status Bar and Tools button had disappeared from the main page. So that meant another System Restore to get the Status Bar/Tool button back.

(As an aside, is there an easy way to recapture the Status Bar other than System Restore? None of the F1-12 buttons work for me on this.)

When I typed sfc/scannow in Run, the error message said there was no such file. This kind of thing seems to be par for the course in trying to find a solution. For instance, in the MS Support page for 'Missing graphics', they ask 'Would you like us to fix this for you?' or 'Would you like to fix this yourself?' Unfortunately, this is not an option for IE7, so they direct you to another page where the 'Let us fix it' link doesn't work - or not on my computer anyway. And the 'Fix it yourself' instructions seem fairly straightforward but need the backslash, which I don't have on my keyboard. Just when I seem to be getting there, a little brick wall pops up out of nowhere kind of thing!

By the time I'd gone through all this, it was after 4:30am - waaay past my bedtime. So that's where I went.

Nicolatesla - I appreciate your comments about Avira and agree wholeheartedly. The funny thing is, the people who recommended it to me have it on their systems and are very happy with it. They say they have no problems with it whatsoever. Reformatting and reinstalling a new drive sounds good to me, but would need a professional IT expert, yes?

When the harddrive came back I found that the repairman had installed AVG, which I didn't want because I'd already decided to install Avast! following the many positive reviews I'd read about it on a couple of different sites. It's impossible to know if this caused the problem which was already there before I uninstalled AVG.

Bearing in mind Nicolatesla's caveat about free downloads, there is a Registry Cleaner service being offered at <clean-up-comuter-run-perfectly.com/> (sic). Would this help, assuming it is a corrupt registry problem? I'm really clutching at straws here.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions so far, and for taking the time to respond.

 

PeteC - Thanks for your response. I'm being dragged away from my computer now (forcibly, I might add!), so I'll post as soon as I get back.

 

Hi again,

PeteC - You were right; I did miss the space (Ouch!). Have just done it properly and it checked all the files from CD and the the box just closed with no further comment. Does this mean that all the files are ok? Will attempt the Repair when I log out from here. Btw, I think I understand what you meant by 'other Windows apps' - I've just noticed that the Control Panel Category View and the Start menu have their normal background colours, so it seems to be only in IE and Yahoo! Home page/Yahoo! mail pages that the problem lies. But upgrading to IE8 didn't work.

Nicolatesla and Admin - Thanks for your responses. I might try your Panda suggestion if Avast! goes wobbly.

 

Hi everyone,

PeteC - Your suggestion worked! - and I've got the icons to prove it



PeteC and all,

Not without a few hiccups though. A couple of false starts on my part and a gremlin intervention (crashed during Driver install! Had to start again!) plus a misleading instruction <Press enter to shutdown. On restart press Enter again > When I did that, it went back to the beginning of install repair. So it ended up as another 4am job!

I couldn't believe my eyes when that lovely colourful screen appeared, complete with graphics and boxed texts. It was wonderful.

I knew of the Install Repair option, but it sounded as though it was above my skills level. Thanks for giving me the encouragement and support to give it a go!

Then something really strange happened - the computer shut down and rebooted. When the Homepage screen came back on, the font was massive and blue - no colour, graphics or anything! On every site! So I ran Install Repair again, and still got the massive blue font.

I went into System Restore but there were no restore points before 20th, so I tried creating one. No joy - nothing happened.

Then I got fed up. I went through all the possible ways of changing options and appearance. Finally, and not really caring very much anymore, to be honest, I ended up playing about with the Contrast options. This is not on the main Display menu as you all know, but is tucked away in the side box on the left of the page.

When I returned to my Home page, having resigned myself to working with only half a computer so to speak, the colours, graphics and boxed texts were back! As well as the normal page fonts - the default medium setting! Everything back to normal; as it was before the Avira fiasco, but without the viruses! And I can't remember what I did!

Anyway, it's back to normal and I'm so chuffed! Thanks, guys and gals. A big virtual hug to you all!

But I don't think I'm going to risk going into the Event Manager now.

Btw, in the 'Set Program Access and Defaults', I noticed that where it says <Choose default media player> in Custom, the <Use present media player> has been bulleted instead of Microsoft Media player. So I'm going to bullet the MS Mediaplayer and try again to download wmp10. I'll let you know if it helps.

Also, the BBS page looks very impressive in colour!