Help with my XP system

Here are the results of the last exercise...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WINIO]
"Type "=dword:00000001
"Start "=dword:00000004
"ErrorControl "=dword:00000001
"ImagePath "=hex(2):c6,02,fd,00,12,00,00,00
"DisplayName "= "WINIO "

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WINIO\Security]
"Security "=hex:01,00,14,80,90,00,00,00,9c,00,00,00,14,00,00,00,30,00,00,00,02,\
00,1c,00,01,00,00,00,02,80,14,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,\
00,00,02,00,60,00,04,00,00,00,00,00,14,00,fd,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,\
05,12,00,00,00,00,00,18,00,ff,01,0f,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,\
20,02,00,00,00,00,14,00,8d,01,02,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,0b,00,00,00,00,\
00,18,00,fd,01,02,00,01,02,00,00,00,00,00,05,20,00,00,00,23,02,00,00,01,01,\
00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00,01,01,00,00,00,00,00,05,12,00,00,00


Better yet?

 

I like that better. Let me know if you notice any ill-effect of disabling that, though from the values in that registry key, you shouldn't.

Could you give us an update of how the computer is behaving please? Be specific.

 

A Very Big Thank You Is In Order!!

TC (Ken) was right... you're the best! I'd say I'm pretty well off now. At least a whole lot better than I would have been had I listened to the Dell people... I'd have lost everything!

Details... I did find out what was wrong w/ the corrupted desktop - Windows Classic and probably all of them... It only likes .bmp files now.. used to accept .jpg just fine but that has changed.

All of my programs seem to need a bit of a tweek to get rolling again, but then the next time they work fine. Nothing absoutely does not work except one of my CD/DVD drives and I think I just have to reinstall the driver on that one. I haven't had a chance to check everything but the main items that I desparetely need (isn't it awful what we've come to...) are up and running better than before the virus TC was able to locate with HJT that several anti-malware/virus ware did not detect!

I have already referred you to one person and will keep doing so. I will also leave you and TC donations for all your help. I'm so glad I listened to my gut instinct and didn't take everyone's advice to do a clean install...

Thanks again!!

SueW

 

Hi Sue,

Glad to hear things are working well again.

What's going on with the cd drive? Open Device Manager ..... right click My Computer>Hardware tab>Device Manager. Identify the non-working cd drive, right click it and uninstall. Reboot. It should re-install.

Download ATF Cleaner by Atribune and save it to your Desktop.
Double click ATF-Cleaner.exe to run the program.
Check the boxes to the left of:

Windows Temp
Current User Temp
All Users Temp
Temporary Internet Files
Prefetch
Java Cache
Recycle bin


The rest are optional - if you want it to remove everything check "Select All ".
Finally, click Empty Selected. When you get the "Done Cleaning" message, click OK. Reboot. Let us know if programs loading seems better after a couple reboots and a bit of time spent logged on between reboots.

As for the desktop .........

Classic theme;
Do things seem normal if you use no background?
Does it behave differently using bmp as opposed to jpg?

XP theme;
Do things seem normal if you use no background?


Do you have any camera software installed, that possibly re-associated jpg files with it? Test by opening any jpg ....... does it open with Windows Picture and Fax viewer, Microsoft Photo Editor, camera software?

 

Happy 4th!

Here's an update from your last post.

I have several graphics programs that could be causing the desktop .jpg/.bmp issue but no camera software. It's anyone's guess what some of these programs set-up trying to 'help' make things easier! I'm OK using .bmp... makes no difference where the desktop is concerned. Not worth pursuing that issue! I use Photoshop almost exclusively so it's not a problem. It could have very well come from Studio Plus... that was in installation nightmare in itself!

I cleaned up per your suggestion but am in the habit of keeping things very clean - habit from back when I wrote my own .bat files... pre-windows and very little memory!!! I just don't like a lot of clutter so clean about once a week if it's in an obvious location. I also use CCleaner fairly regularly.

The DVD/CD drive is up and running again. Thanks... was going to get to that but hadn't yet... good reminder!

The only issue I seem to have now is a couple of the programs still seem to get to a non-responsive point and I get the message that MS would like to hear about it. I just re-boot. Compared to where I was... I'm not complaining about that!

Thanks again for everything! BTW - what do you think of Vista?

SueW

 

Hi Sue. Happy 4th to you also!

Happy the cd drive is working again.

If you'd like to check ......... rather, change the jpg association back to default to see if it helps, it's easily done. Just right click any jpg and select Open With>Choose Program. From the list, select Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer. Check the box to 'Always use selected program' then click OK.

Programs becoming unresponsive can be attributed to many things, the most common being (since you've already cleaned house);

1. Not enough RAM or failing RAM
2. Dust buildup on processor heat sink and/or system fans, thereby causing excessive processor heat and decreased performance.

If you have a look into the Event Viewer for application errors, you may see a common failing that could tell us what the cause is.


Vista ......... just got through installing it in a Virtual Machine. Too early to give much of an opinion, but I can tell you I will be disabling UAC if I run it.

Interface is cool, albiet very different.

Running Ultimate BTW, so I'm sure I'll enjoy some of the features not available in the Basic edition.

 

Usually the .bmp issue with Windows is due to the Temp folder getting full. Keep your Temporary Internet Files and Temp folders cleaned and other image files should work.