Can't add to favorites

[Guest]

Strange symptom on a newly-inherited Dell XP machine: Can't Add to Favorites
normally.

When I left click on Favorites menu in IE6.0.2900.2180.xpsp2, I see the
normal Add to Favorites and Organize Favorites options, with sites and
folders underneath a dividing line. When I click Add to Favorites, I get:
"Internet Explorer will add this page to your Favorites list."
and a white "Make available offline" option box,
and "Name:" with a white space with the suggested name of the site in it.

But underneath, where it says Create In, I can read folder names but no file
names outside the folders. I cannot click on file names, and the entire box
containing them is as grey as the surrounding window, which ends on the right
side just beyond these boxes and the (greyed out) customize button.

The four option boxes of OK, Cancel, Create in<<, and New Folder are not
there at all. (Same thing from Favorites toolbar.)

My only option is to change the name and close with the x in the top right
corner, and this does not save the page.

I CAN add individual pages with cntrl + D, but I cannot later see the page
names in the greyed out box obtained by clicking on Favorites/Add. I see
them when I first click on Favorites.

Organize Favorites appears to be working normally.

I do NOT get the red x described in http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ie/redxorg.htm.
No error messages anywhere on the machine, ever.

I have verified the Favorites path in KKCU to %USERPROFILE%\Favorites, with
a REG_EXPAND_SZ value, not REG_SZ.

Computer had MSN and Earthlink software on it, which I have removed with
Add/Remove Programs.

Tried to Start > Run and typed "sfc /scannow" and got nothing more than a
momentary flash of a DOS screen.

I have no Accessories in my Start/All Programs listings. Is this a Dell
thing to remove it?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi JBB,

Can you post a screenshot ?

--
Ramesh Srinivasan
MS-MVP, Windows Shell

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com

 

[Guest]

I know how to take one but how do I paste one into this forum?



JBB

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

1. Upload to the web
2. Insert attachment, or..
3. Send to me email id (If so, remove "online." from my ID)

--
Ramesh Srinivasan
MS-MVP, Windows Shell

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com

 

[Guest]

Sent to your email.
JBB

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Received it, and will look into the problem. For others interested, they can
view the image (cropped) here:

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/temp/image001.jpg

--
Ramesh Srinivasan
MS-MVP, Windows Shell

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com

 

[Peter Foldes]

JBB

Did you Import or Install Favorites from a previous system? If so what OS was it that you imported it from

 

[Guest]

I dont know what the previous owner of this computer might have imported
from, but when I go to Import/Export Wizrd, the "Import from a File or
Address" window has the following value already in it so it might be a clue:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\bookmark.htm.

The previous user of this computer used MSN. Before I got the computer, he
ran MSN Favorites Export Toolkit from http://www.mainsoft.fr and a few other
programs (he was exporting or trying to export to Apple). Maybe one of them
corrupted IE?

The computer was quite buggy when I got it and I cleaned up a lot of stuff.
Before posting to this forum, I (without any improvement) uninstalled and
reinstalled IE6.

Despite the fact that I have uninstalled all MSN programs, ( using
Add/Remove programs) there is still a folder under c:\documents and settings
\<username>\Application Data\MSN6\UserData\ that contains quite a bit of MSN
stuff including favorites.xml and favcache.sml and favthumb.dbx and etc.
Think this might need to go away?