no drives in my computer

[Guest]

A customer brought a system into the shop for malware removal. After cleaning
it up, which included removing a rootkit (at least the portions I could
find), it ran pretty well, except for a few problems that would appear to
have a common root cause. The machine is xp home sp2.

1) sometimes, when going into the Printers & Faxes folder, or Control Panel,
the contents of the right-hand pane do not display. There is no flashlight
icon visible in the right-hand pane when this happens, and if you close out
and go back in, then it works.

2) when opening My Computer, nothing displays in the right-hand pane, no
matter how many times you go into My Computer.

3) opening Windows Explorer reveals only a My Computer folder icon in the
left-hand tree pane (no C: or CD drives) and nothing in the right hand pane.
However, you can go to the address bar and see C: and the CD drives in the
pull-down list, and you can then navigate throughout the computer, and the
contents then show in the right-hand pane.

I took a look at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309663 but this doesn't
really fit, as Help and System Restore display normallly. I also tried
XP_CD-DVD-Fix.zip even though none of the drives are visible, and this did
not fix the problem.

It acts as though the drives are hidden through some sort of group policy
setting, even though this is a home machine that has never been on a
domain/server network. I suspect that the root kit based malware might have
been responsible for this, so I suspect that I will have to manually fix it
through the registry. Can anyone point me to the registry hack that affects
this?

 

[HondaELP via WindowsKB.com]

I think you need to stop messing with the registry, and just reload the
machine. It almost sounds like the addware software you removed, ended up
corrupting the system after you removed it. I think the best thing to do
instead of attempting to hack any further with the registry, is just put a
fresh install of the OS and other applications on the machine. That will
definitely resolve your problems.

HondaELP

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Windows Explorer folder pane is blank or grayed out
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/greyfolderpane.htm

"All Folders" pane missing or Windows Explorer is blank
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=192315

It acts as though the drives are hidden through some sort of group policy
setting

TweakUI can hide drives. Group policy can hide drives. Registry settings
can hide drives.

TweakUI
[+] My Computer
Drives

Drives
[[Windows XP can hide drive letters. You hide them by setting NoDrives in
the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer,
but it's easier using the Tweak UI category Drives.]]

[[NOTE
Hiding drive letters in Windows XP doesn't prevent users from accessing
those drives through other means, including at the command prompt.
This setting hides only those drives in Windows Explorer, the common dialog
boxes, and so on. Thus, you can't rely on this as a security measure.]]
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/6232.asp

Download TweakUI here...

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not
exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including
mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows
Server 2003.

Tweak UI
TweakUI.exe
===

Tweak UI for Windows XP Guide
http://www.winxpsolution.com/Tweakuixppro.aspx

If XP Pro check these settings in Group Policy.

Open Group Policy...
Start | Run | Type: gpedit.msc | Click OK |

Navigate to >>
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\
Windows Explorer\
Hide these specified drives in My Computer
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDrives
more info...
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=548

User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\
Windows Explorer\
Prevent access to drives from My Computer
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoViewOnDri
ve
more info...
http://www.boyce.us/gp/gpcontent.asp?ID=549


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Thanks for you opinion, but unlike the other computer shops around here, we
prefer to fix the problem rather than force the customer to reload all their
programs.

 

[Guest]

Windows Explorer folder pane is blank or grayed out
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/greyfolderpane.htm

Not the problem...

"All Folders" pane missing or Windows Explorer is blank
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=192315

.... again, not the problem

It acts as though the drives are hidden through some sort of group policy
setting

TweakUI can hide drives. Group policy can hide drives. Registry settings
can hide drives.

TweakUI
[+] My Computer
Drives

Drives
[[Windows XP can hide drive letters. You hide them by setting NoDrives in
the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer,
but it's easier using the Tweak UI category Drives.]]

Thanks, I'll try that.

 

[HondaELP via WindowsKB.com]

I didn't mean to insult your computer shop, or your IT department. I am just
thinking from what you wrote in your original problem, it almost sounds like
the registry is corrupt. I have seen this in my experience, the best way to
fix it is reloading the users machine. You could also try to roll the
machine back to the last known good configuration and see if that fixes the
problem.

HondaELP