=?Utf-8?B?a2JpdHMubmV0?= added these comments in the current
discussion du jour ...
) Anytime you suspect windows system file corruptions use WFP
to correct issues. It doesn't always run right but sometimes
does the trick. Insert the XP CD and at Run "sfc /scannow".
Interesting! I'm not the OP but thank you anyway. I didn't really
know this and had I known it, perhaps I'd have had less trouble
on rare occasions.
) If the taskbar does not return there is a tweak at Kelly's
Korner for that. It may not work but it's worth a try.
) If neither of those work try a WinXP repair. Sometimes that
works if the option is available when you reboot to the CD.
I assume you're talking primarily to the "lost taskbar" part of
this thread. I wouldn't have thought of a repair install, but it
is a good idea to put in the back of my mind. Had my attempts to
solve the increasing shutdown of my PC I suffered with for a
week, perhaps I could've tried that. I did manage to save my
bacon, though, by rolling my system back in Safe mode to a date
prior to some MS and other updates which I suspected caused the
gross instability and that appears to have fixed my problem.
) You can't end SYSTEM processes. In the old days you could
and it immediately crashed your system.
I almost entirely agree with you. Certainly your advise is 100%
correct for folks not too XP savvy. However, on RARE occasions,
but AFTER setting a manual RP, I have successfully used
Taskmanager to shut down system functions, but ONLY those I
believed (rightly or wrongly) would be safe or "safe". Maybe I
was lucky, but I think I'm on solid ground shutting down
application systems that I know are really not in use. A couple
examples are Roxio Easy Media Creator, a Maxtor external HD
backup routine that supports the utility I never even installed,
and a couple other side-bars to apps or utilities I know are not
really in use. All of that said, as you so correctly say, I would
NEVER shut down a for-real Windows file.
I do make TWO exceptions to my "rule": 1) when I cannot get
something which depends on Windows Explorer to work such as
Explorer itself, dialog boxes and the like. Of course, when I
shut down explorer, my task bar goes away and some of my desktop
icons, but I can get it all back 100% by launching explorer.ext
as a new task in Taskmanager, and 2) I often have to shut IE6
down when it refuses to close on its own. Technically, IE isn't a
system file at all, or at least no where near as important as
Explorer is that virtually all of Windows depends on. But, if
doing either of thesee things crashes or hangs my system, a
simple restart gets me out of trouble. However, I NEVER recommend
doing what I just described to people that aren't desperate.
) Slow shutdown and startup - could write a book on that.
Beyond the scope here.
Agreed. I see you quoted some of my ideas which are barely
scratching the surface. Whenever somebody says that this, that,
or the other thing is slow or getting slower, I fall back on the
same set of possible "culprits". But, if the obvious doesn't
work, then yes, I DO have 3 or 4 techie books from Que and
Microsofft that I refer to. Luckily, absent the self-inflicted
pain of wanting to launch a dozen often used apps when I restart,
my start-up times with a reasonably fast, defragged HD and a 2.6
GHz AMD CPU are not at all objectionable.
Again, my thanks for some very useful info.
