Difficult to fix Windows 2000 problem - error 1324 and more . . .

[Stan Shankman]

Greetings guys,

I have a problem with my Windows 2000 Pro system that I need help with.

These are the symptoms:

1) When I attempt to install certain programs, install.exe faults out and
issues "error 1324" - complaining about an invalid character in a path.

2) When using IE and attempting to save an item, the left-side collection of
iconed-buttons use to contain "My Documents" (used for rapid navigation to
that location). This button is no longer present and has been replaced with
"My Computer".

This is what I think may have happened:

I was attempting to create a backup of the folder "My Documents" by dragging
a copy of the folder to a different drive. But I think I inadvertently held
down the shift key, and did a MOVE instead. Now, what happened next is
something that a few of you may know about. - Namely that at times an NTFS
file system can be plagued with "Phantom Files" i.e. files that cannot be
accessed or deleted. Anyway, one such file was nestled in the "My Documents"
folder and when MOVE (which I mean to be COPY) encountered this "Phantom
file", it caused MOVE to abort with an error message. I immediately
recognized what had happened, and reached for the "undo move" command. It
worked, and I thought all was well. But now I notice that the two above
problems have materialized.

Needless to say, the path to "My Documents" is just as it was before this
problem occurred and the issuance of error 1324 is - how should I say - not
entirely helpful. I even went through the rigmarole of enabling logging with
install.exe - no new information was forthcoming.

I strongly suspect that a registry key has been "gummed".

Okay guys, time to show your mettle. Who amongst you can help me with this
one?
Who's going to take home the "rocket-scientist-of the-day" award? I can
usually fix this kind of thing by conducting Google searches but this time I
'm not getting the answers I seek.

Unsure how to proceed here,

- Stan Shankman

 

[Stan Shankman]

Additional information from the original poster:

Here I give a brief update regarding my original post. But first, I would
like to mention a slight correction to that post:

The following is referring to the panel that opens when you select "save as"
(or "save") and specifically, to that collection of buttons that appears on
the left-most side of that panel. (The rapid navigation buttons.) I stated
in my original post that the one button "My Documents" had been changed to
"My Computer" - but I now see that this is not entirely so. Instead, the "My
Documents" button has simply disappeared and the space that it once
occupied, had been filled with the "My computer" button. (Which contrary to
my original thoughts did not come into being as a result of the missing
button, but instead had always been there.) Now I see that an empty space is
visible at the bottom of the button collection - so apparently, if any
button disappears, the other buttons just "float" up filling the space and
leaving any empty space at the bottom.

In working to resolve this issue (and the other issue - error 1324 at
install time), I did a little poking around inside the registry, and found a
key whose data was showing "My Pictures" to be on a wrong drive. I changed
it and tried things again. It did nothing to fix the missing button problem,
but surprisingly, it did change error 1324 into error 1606! I did a little
Google search for "error 1606", and it led me to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders

Which (as the news article had said) contained a value for "My Pictures"
that was a "REG_SZ" type and needed to be changed to a "REG_EXPAND_SZ type.
I made the necessary change, and much to my relief my install problem was
fixed! No more errors.

However, all this did nothing to fix the missing "My Documents" button
problem.

Soooo, since all of you rocket-scientist types have been so silent on my
previous post, I was hoping that this new information might just spring a
few of you to life.

Specifically:
How does one locate (in the registry?) the collection of buttons on the
"save as" panel?
And how can one add a new button to that collection? - If it's even
possible.

By the way, I have always thought that it would be nice if one could simply
"right-click" on one of these buttons and then "fill" it with a location of
choice. (Kind of like the buttons on a car radio that you can set to the
stations of your choice.) What do think? Is this a good idea or what?

So guys, I'm all ears here,

- Stan Shankman

 

[Stan Shankman]

Additional information from the original poster:

Here I give a brief update regarding my original post. But first, I would
like to mention a slight correction to that post:

The following is referring to the panel that opens when you select "save as"
(or "save") and specifically, to that collection of buttons that appears on
the left-most side of that panel. (The rapid navigation buttons.) I stated
in my original post that the one button "My Documents" had been changed to
"My Computer" - but I now see that this is not entirely so. Instead, the "My
Documents" button has simply disappeared and the space that it once
occupied, had been filled with the "My computer" button. (Which contrary to
my original thoughts did not come into being as a result of the missing
button, but instead had always been there.) Now I see that an empty space is
visible at the bottom of the button collection - so apparently, if any
button disappears, the other buttons just "float" up filling the space and
leaving any empty space at the bottom.

In working to resolve this issue (and the other issue - error 1324 at
install time), I did a little poking around inside the registry, and found a
key whose data was showing "My Pictures" to be on a wrong drive. I changed
it and tried things again. It did nothing to fix the missing button problem,
but surprisingly, it did change error 1324 into error 1606! I did a little
Google search for "error 1606", and it led me to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders

Which (as the news article had said) contained a value for "My Pictures"
that was a "REG_SZ" type and needed to be changed to a "REG_EXPAND_SZ type.
I made the necessary change, and much to my relief my install problem was
fixed! No more errors.

However, all this did nothing to fix the missing "My Documents" button
problem.

Soooo, since all of you rocket-scientist types have been so silent on my
previous post, I was hoping that this new information might just spring a
few of you to life.

Specifically:
How does one locate (in the registry?) the collection of buttons on the
"save as" panel?
And how can one add a new button to that collection? - If it's even
possible.

By the way, I have always thought that it would be nice if one could simply
"right-click" on one of these buttons and then "fill" it with a location of
choice. (Kind of like the buttons on a car radio that you can set to the
stations of your choice.) What do think? Is this a good idea or what?

So guys, I'm all ears here,

- Stan Shankman

 

[Gary Smith]

How does one locate (in the registry?) the collection of buttons on the
"save as" panel?
And how can one add a new button to that collection? - If it's even
possible.

The information is stored here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\Placesbar
I find that it's easier to use TweakUI to modify these settings, but if
you want to tinker with them manually, see
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBF/Tip2500/rh2514.htm

 

[Gary Smith]

How does one locate (in the registry?) the collection of buttons on the
"save as" panel?
And how can one add a new button to that collection? - If it's even
possible.

The information is stored here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32\Placesbar
I find that it's easier to use TweakUI to modify these settings, but if
you want to tinker with them manually, see
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBF/Tip2500/rh2514.htm

 

[Stan Shankman]

Gary,



Thanks for the postback.



I have gotten a little farther into this problem and will give you another
update:

I discovered the "PlacesBar" key on my own, and did play with it.

Well, actually, the "PlacesBar" key did not exist in my registry, but I did
create and then play with it.



Here is what I discovered:



Once a "PlacesBar" key was added, I was able to create places to my hearts
content. And did manage to get my places setup the way I like. But I did
discover one interesting anomaly - namely the fact that one of the hex
values did not work! Can you guess which one? "My Documents" did not work -
Hex value 05. But, I did make a string value for this place, and pointed it
to "My Documents" and that did work. So, right now all is working well. I
even have better places than I had before I started. But you know what? I
sure would like to know why my default 05 hex value is not working. I say
"default" because it now seems obvious that the reason "My Documents" was
missing in the first place is because this Hex value is not functioning. And
of course I would still like to know why.



Any thoughts?



Thanks again,

- Stan Shankman

 

[Stan Shankman]

Gary,



Thanks for the postback.



I have gotten a little farther into this problem and will give you another
update:

I discovered the "PlacesBar" key on my own, and did play with it.

Well, actually, the "PlacesBar" key did not exist in my registry, but I did
create and then play with it.



Here is what I discovered:



Once a "PlacesBar" key was added, I was able to create places to my hearts
content. And did manage to get my places setup the way I like. But I did
discover one interesting anomaly - namely the fact that one of the hex
values did not work! Can you guess which one? "My Documents" did not work -
Hex value 05. But, I did make a string value for this place, and pointed it
to "My Documents" and that did work. So, right now all is working well. I
even have better places than I had before I started. But you know what? I
sure would like to know why my default 05 hex value is not working. I say
"default" because it now seems obvious that the reason "My Documents" was
missing in the first place is because this Hex value is not functioning. And
of course I would still like to know why.



Any thoughts?



Thanks again,

- Stan Shankman

 

[Carrie Garth \(MVP\)]

<SNIP> attempting to save an item, the left-side collection of
iconed-buttons use to contain "My Documents" (used for rapid
navigation to that location). This button is no longer present <SNIP>

This can happen when you "remove the My Documents folder from the
desktop" as described in the Windows 2000 help topic titled with the
words in double-quotes. For more information about customizing the list
of folders on the Microsoft Windows 2000 common dialog box Places Bar
(used by Notepad, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, etc.) and the
Office 2000 Places Bar see the following document:

Windows & .NET Magazine
August 2001 | Dino Esposito | Scripting Solutions | Instant
Doc #21539: Customize the Places Bar
http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=21539

 

[Carrie Garth \(MVP\)]

<SNIP> attempting to save an item, the left-side collection of
iconed-buttons use to contain "My Documents" (used for rapid
navigation to that location). This button is no longer present <SNIP>

This can happen when you "remove the My Documents folder from the
desktop" as described in the Windows 2000 help topic titled with the
words in double-quotes. For more information about customizing the list
of folders on the Microsoft Windows 2000 common dialog box Places Bar
(used by Notepad, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, etc.) and the
Office 2000 Places Bar see the following document:

Windows & .NET Magazine
August 2001 | Dino Esposito | Scripting Solutions | Instant
Doc #21539: Customize the Places Bar
http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=21539

 

[Larry Serflaten]

I have gotten a little farther into this problem and will give you another
update:

I discovered the "PlacesBar" key on my own, and did play with it.

I just thought I would add my own fix to the custom navigation dilema.

With 2 - 30+ gigabyte drives, containing 4 partitions, and hundreds
of directories, I wanted a way to quickly get to often used directories.
I use a generic-to-specific naming scheme for my directories which
tends to put the data directories several levels down on the tree
structure. Thus opening My Computer to get to a directory would
entail several iterations of looking for the right folder and double
clicking it to open it up, to get to the next level in the tree...

Here is what I did to shorten the folder find process in the dialogs.
To get to them quickly, I created a folder on my desktop called
'Local Links' with shortcuts to the often used directories. Now,
instead of opening My Computer, I can open my Local Links
folder and pick the link that will take me to the exact folder I
want. In addition, all the Open and Save dialogs show the
Local Links folder in the dropdown list at the top of the dialog.
So every program that uses those dialogs now offers a quick
method of getting to my frequently used directories. I simply
click on the down arrow on the dropdown list and select the
Local Links item in the list. From there I can select any of the
links I have added to the folder.

This is all done without changing any Registry settings, and, I can
easily add or remove shortcuts to the Local Links folder on my
desktop, to keep it up to date.

LFS

 

[Larry Serflaten]

I have gotten a little farther into this problem and will give you another
update:

I discovered the "PlacesBar" key on my own, and did play with it.

I just thought I would add my own fix to the custom navigation dilema.

With 2 - 30+ gigabyte drives, containing 4 partitions, and hundreds
of directories, I wanted a way to quickly get to often used directories.
I use a generic-to-specific naming scheme for my directories which
tends to put the data directories several levels down on the tree
structure. Thus opening My Computer to get to a directory would
entail several iterations of looking for the right folder and double
clicking it to open it up, to get to the next level in the tree...

Here is what I did to shorten the folder find process in the dialogs.
To get to them quickly, I created a folder on my desktop called
'Local Links' with shortcuts to the often used directories. Now,
instead of opening My Computer, I can open my Local Links
folder and pick the link that will take me to the exact folder I
want. In addition, all the Open and Save dialogs show the
Local Links folder in the dropdown list at the top of the dialog.
So every program that uses those dialogs now offers a quick
method of getting to my frequently used directories. I simply
click on the down arrow on the dropdown list and select the
Local Links item in the list. From there I can select any of the
links I have added to the folder.

This is all done without changing any Registry settings, and, I can
easily add or remove shortcuts to the Local Links folder on my
desktop, to keep it up to date.

LFS

 

[Stan Shankman]

This can happen when you "remove the My Documents folder from the
desktop" as described in the Windows 2000 help topic titled with the

As you say, I think the "My Documents" folder was not on my desktop, but I added it back with no effect.
I just added it by just dragging a shortcut of "My documents" onto to the desktop.
Was this the right thing to do?

 

[Stan Shankman]

This can happen when you "remove the My Documents folder from the
desktop" as described in the Windows 2000 help topic titled with the

As you say, I think the "My Documents" folder was not on my desktop, but I added it back with no effect.
I just added it by just dragging a shortcut of "My documents" onto to the desktop.
Was this the right thing to do?

 

[Stan Shankman]

Larry,

Your idea of creating a "links" folder on the desktop is not a bad idea.
(Although I'm not the kind of guy that uses the desktop. - In fact, I keep my desktop totally empty and I even hide all desktop icons.) However, if I were to implement your idea, I would do so by creating a folder under "My Documents" and calling it "My Links".

But, now that I have learned how to customize the "places" buttons on the "save-as" panel I find that I'm totally satisfied with the newly created functionality, so I don't think I will implement your scheme at this time. I do however feel that it is a good idea, and perhaps others out there will find it useful.

When, or if, I ever feel that the limit of five "places" is overly restrictive, I might just setup your scheme, but what I would do would be to reassign one of my "places" to the "My Links" folder.

Thanks for the post.

- Stan Shankman

 

[Stan Shankman]

Larry,

Your idea of creating a "links" folder on the desktop is not a bad idea.
(Although I'm not the kind of guy that uses the desktop. - In fact, I keep my desktop totally empty and I even hide all desktop icons.) However, if I were to implement your idea, I would do so by creating a folder under "My Documents" and calling it "My Links".

But, now that I have learned how to customize the "places" buttons on the "save-as" panel I find that I'm totally satisfied with the newly created functionality, so I don't think I will implement your scheme at this time. I do however feel that it is a good idea, and perhaps others out there will find it useful.

When, or if, I ever feel that the limit of five "places" is overly restrictive, I might just setup your scheme, but what I would do would be to reassign one of my "places" to the "My Links" folder.

Thanks for the post.

- Stan Shankman

 

[Gary Smith]

Once a "PlacesBar" key was added, I was able to create places to my hearts
content. And did manage to get my places setup the way I like. But I did
discover one interesting anomaly - namely the fact that one of the hex
values did not work! Can you guess which one? "My Documents" did not work -
Hex value 05. But, I did make a string value for this place, and pointed it
to "My Documents" and that did work. So, right now all is working well. I
even have better places than I had before I started. But you know what? I
sure would like to know why my default 05 hex value is not working. I say
"default" because it now seems obvious that the reason "My Documents" was
missing in the first place is because this Hex value is not functioning. And
of course I would still like to know why.

This is very peculiar. My system has

Place0 REG_DWORD 0x00000022 (34)
Place1 REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)
Place2 REG_DWORD 0x00000005 (5)
Place3 REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\
Place4 REG_SZ E:\

and the 05 value works just fine to display my (renamed) "My Documents"
folder. Is your documents folder appropriately defined in the Personal
value of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders?

 

[Gary Smith]

Once a "PlacesBar" key was added, I was able to create places to my hearts
content. And did manage to get my places setup the way I like. But I did
discover one interesting anomaly - namely the fact that one of the hex
values did not work! Can you guess which one? "My Documents" did not work -
Hex value 05. But, I did make a string value for this place, and pointed it
to "My Documents" and that did work. So, right now all is working well. I
even have better places than I had before I started. But you know what? I
sure would like to know why my default 05 hex value is not working. I say
"default" because it now seems obvious that the reason "My Documents" was
missing in the first place is because this Hex value is not functioning. And
of course I would still like to know why.

This is very peculiar. My system has

Place0 REG_DWORD 0x00000022 (34)
Place1 REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)
Place2 REG_DWORD 0x00000005 (5)
Place3 REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\
Place4 REG_SZ E:\

and the 05 value works just fine to display my (renamed) "My Documents"
folder. Is your documents folder appropriately defined in the Personal
value of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders?

 

[Gary Smith]

As you say, I think the "My Documents" folder was not on my desktop, but I added it back with no effect.
I just added it by just dragging a shortcut of "My documents" onto to the desktop.
Was this the right thing to do?

The original desktop shortcut for "My Documents" is not an ordinary
shortcut. You should be able to make that one reappear by going to Folder
Options > View and checking the box labeled "Show My Documents on the
Desktop" near the bottom of the Advanced box. That option may also be
connected to the entry in the Places bar.

 

[Gary Smith]

As you say, I think the "My Documents" folder was not on my desktop, but I added it back with no effect.
I just added it by just dragging a shortcut of "My documents" onto to the desktop.
Was this the right thing to do?

The original desktop shortcut for "My Documents" is not an ordinary
shortcut. You should be able to make that one reappear by going to Folder
Options > View and checking the box labeled "Show My Documents on the
Desktop" near the bottom of the Advanced box. That option may also be
connected to the entry in the Places bar.

 

[Stan Shankman]

This is very peculiar. My system has

Place0 REG_DWORD 0x00000022 (34)
Place1 REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)
Place2 REG_DWORD 0x00000005 (5)
Place3 REG_EXPAND_SZ %SystemDrive%\
Place4 REG_SZ E:\

and the 05 value works just fine to display my (renamed) "My Documents"
folder. Is your documents folder appropriately defined in the Personal
value of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User
Shell Folders?

Yes, both of my above keys are as they should be.