Don't panic. He just means you're posting in the future! It's already
tomorrow on your machine. As for your problem - sorry I can't be much help.
You might want to check if your video drivers are up-to-date. Other than
that I have no suggestions.
Ah yes I am a bit of a panic merchant.
I just found the problem. It was a little program (freeware) that
made via folder context menu an m3u listing of music files within
folder.
Apparently this is another known problem. Nothing new under the sun
and all that. (might be called negative icon or negativeicon problem
etc or something). Anyway I uninstalled that wonky program and the
problem fixed without reboot.
Apparently I didn't google enough before asking, for after awhile I
came across this idea below, and it made sense after what I had been
reading earlier so I tried it.
The context of the advice is found at
http://www.mcse.ms/archive66-2005-6-1635894.html
----------------------------------------------------
For the benefit of others, I found my solution by using x-setup-pro.
It can be found at
http://www.x-setup.net/home.asp?lang=EN
and is freeware for the home user (which is where I was encountering
my problem). Incidentally, I had two bad entries. One was for
Microsoft Encarta 2000, and the other was for a Microsoft Encarta
utility. Not too surprising there... Encarta was a pretty poor
program.
I lost track of who wrote the following text, but it explains how to
figure out where the problem lies.
"First I went to the registry but there is a lot of stuff there I
don't understand, so I left it alone. Then I remembered X-Setup
(
http://www.x-setup.net/) - this is the best program ever
made for Windows. It lets you tweak all kinds of things - including
the Add/Remove programs list.
"So, open Add/Remove Programs, and open X-Setup. My version may be old
and I honestly don't know if I have a trial, freeware, shareware or
hacked version (but its probably worth buying), so you might have to
adjust the instructions to fit yours. X-Setup uses a folder/tree
structure, so dig down All X-Setup Pro Plug-ins->System->Software
Installation->Add or Remove Programs List Editor. On the right-hand
side it will give you a list in alphabetical order of what should be
in your Add/Remove programs (so make sure you sort that by Name).
"Now in Add/Remove programs find what items are before and after the
strange black/striped/graphical area. Then find those same two items
in X-Setup. Is there something listed between them?? In my case there
was - the Electronic Arts EACom Updater.
"If you get the same, or something else you don't need then you can
uninstall it manually: Select the item, then click "Edit CMD.." Don't
actually edit the command, just copy it (Ctrl-C). Then open a command
window (Start->Run->cmd.exe) and paste (usually just right-click with
the mouse) the command. Hit enter and it should uninstall whatever was
causing the problem."[/vbcol]
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