active desk top problem

[Chris Hills]

Help please,

I apologise if this is the wrong NG or some one has answered this
previously but I am in a desperate fix and on a borrowed computer.

I have lost my active desktop and nothing now works on my main machine

It is windows 2K pro SP4
I had just removed Norton Ghost 2001 and turned off most of the
programs in the system try. I then rebooted

The system came up as normal logged on to the network drive the correct
wall paper appeared and the icons (though as windows logos) then the
message about stisve.exe error and then a dialogue to say it could not
find the active desktop html page and click to turn off active desktop.

At this point all the desk top icons show the windows logo and their
usual name but with a .lnk on the end. As do all entries in the program
menu. Nothing wil execute. It coems up with the pick a program with give
little choice notpad etc


Can any one help please?



I ironically I was removing ghost 2001 having (having loaded it a couple
of days ago) to upgrade to system works 2005 so I could do back ups
with my new USB hard drive

The PC usually runs with Norton anti virus, zone alarm firewall and a
spyware blocker (the ADSL router has a hardware fire wall as well) and
full virus scans once a week.

 

[Dave Patrick]

What happens if you logon as a new user? (create a new account in 'Users and
Passwords').

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Help please,
|
| I apologise if this is the wrong NG or some one has answered this
| previously but I am in a desperate fix and on a borrowed computer.
|
| I have lost my active desktop and nothing now works on my main machine
|
| It is windows 2K pro SP4
| I had just removed Norton Ghost 2001 and turned off most of the
| programs in the system try. I then rebooted
|
| The system came up as normal logged on to the network drive the correct
| wall paper appeared and the icons (though as windows logos) then the
| message about stisve.exe error and then a dialogue to say it could not
| find the active desktop html page and click to turn off active desktop.
|
| At this point all the desk top icons show the windows logo and their
| usual name but with a .lnk on the end. As do all entries in the program
| menu. Nothing wil execute. It coems up with the pick a program with give
| little choice notpad etc
|
|
| Can any one help please?
|
|
|
| I ironically I was removing ghost 2001 having (having loaded it a couple
| of days ago) to upgrade to system works 2005 so I could do back ups
| with my new USB hard drive
|
| The PC usually runs with Norton anti virus, zone alarm firewall and a
| spyware blocker (the ADSL router has a hardware fire wall as well) and
| full virus scans once a week.
|
|
|
|
| --
| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
| \/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
| /\/\/ (e-mail address removed) www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
|
|
|

 

[Chris Hills]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. It's not a happy situation and is 23:33 here.

I have managed to add a user

However I get fewer icons on screen, the program menu looks better no
*.lnk entries but there are fewer of them. None of them work :-(


What next? any ideas?

Regards
Chris

What happens if you logon as a new user? (create a new account in 'Users
and Passwords').

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Help please,
|
| I apologise if this is the wrong NG or some one has answered this
| previously but I am in a desperate fix and on a borrowed computer.
|
| I have lost my active desktop and nothing now works on my main machine
|
| It is windows 2K pro SP4
| I had just removed Norton Ghost 2001 and turned off most of the
| programs in the system try. I then rebooted
|
| The system came up as normal logged on to the network drive the
correct
| wall paper appeared and the icons (though as windows logos) then the
| message about stisve.exe error and then a dialogue to say it could
not
| find the active desktop html page and click to turn off active
desktop.
|
| At this point all the desk top icons show the windows logo and their
| usual name but with a .lnk on the end. As do all entries in the
program
| menu. Nothing wil execute. It coems up with the pick a program with
give
| little choice notpad etc
|
|
| Can any one help please?
|
|
|
| I ironically I was removing ghost 2001 having (having loaded it a
couple
| of days ago) to upgrade to system works 2005 so I could do back ups
| with my new USB hard drive
|
| The PC usually runs with Norton anti virus, zone alarm firewall and a
| spyware blocker (the ADSL router has a hardware fire wall as well) and
| full virus scans once a week.
|
|

 

[Dave Patrick]

These articles may help.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q292/1/75.ASP

What an In-Place Windows 2000 Upgrade Changes and What It Does Not Change
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306952

Be sure to apply these to your repair install before connecting to any
network.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|
| Hi,
|
| Thanks for the reply. It's not a happy situation and is 23:33 here.
|
| I have managed to add a user
|
| However I get fewer icons on screen, the program menu looks better no
| *.lnk entries but there are fewer of them. None of them work :-(
|
|
| What next? any ideas?
|
| Regards
| Chris

 

[Chris Hills]

What happens if you logon as a new user? (create a new account in 'Users and
Passwords').

It seems fall over looking for the active desktop html file. it is
complaining it can't find it.

I hope I can get that back because I think that will solve a lot of the
problems. Where should it be?

BTW in safe mode in command prompt mode I can get reg edit to run.

Any ideas?

regards
Chris

 

[Chris Hills]

Hi David,

Thanks for the help

This suggests that once the active desktop html page has been lost there
is no way to recover it?

Regards
chris

 

[Dave Patrick]

No idea about the "html page" you speak of. I was addressing the shell and
file associations corruption your installation suffers from.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hi David,
|
| Thanks for the help
|
| This suggests that once the active desktop html page has been lost there
| is no way to recover it?
|
| Regards
| chris

 

[Chris Hills]

Thanks anyway for the help anyway. I hope the reinstall with solve the
active desktop /htmppage problem as well as the shell problem..

As it is 01:05 here I am going to do the re-install after I get some
sleep.

Ironically this all started as I was preparing the system for Norton
Ghost (v9) to do some backups of disk images to a new external hard
drive