quick launch toolbar related problem

[Guest]

w2k - SP4

for one of my computer's users (advanced user rights) :
1/ the icons on quick launch toolbar diseappered
the Quick Launch user profile folder still exists and the shorcuts corresponding to the missing icons too
this user has all rights on this folder and its shortcuts and is its owner
2/ all items on the start/search menu has disappeared

so this problem does not corresponds to one of the classic quick launch toolbar problems

then after those checking, using a right click on task bar, I hide quick launch toolbar :
- the (empty) quick launch toolbar disappeared (of course)
- the search menu items reappeared (surprise !)

now, when I ask for showing quick launch bar again, I receive an error message telling it cannot creating a toolbar

I never used a tweak-something utility
I got to the Internet using another (restricted rights) user account

 

[Guest]

I found myself the solutio
Could not post it earlier because when trying to reply my message this newsgroup's server always returned me an error messag

Using SysInternals monitoring tools I found that 6 registry values have been changed for the related use

All of those values are named DataAp
They contain the data application pat
It has changed for a "all users" path ("C:\WINNT\Application Data"
In others words, NT user profile behaviour has been changed for the Windows 95 on

Restoring the proper data for 2 modified values restores automatically the 4 other
The system has to be then restarted for modifications to be fully taken into accoun

Data to restore

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folder
value : DataAp
Data : "C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data
(of course, replace <user name> by your current loggin name

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folder
value : DataAp
Data : "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data

Remarks

1/ in such a situation, many recent applications (which use user application folder) may show an abnormal behaviou
the change is also visible in an environment variable which contains the user application data pat
so when quick launch bar has disappeared, this is a sign registry has to be checked for such a chang

2/ I found that several Microsoft applications set those value
- Internet Explore
- Office application
- VB (vhen using online html help, I think

So one of those applications may have been in a panic and change settings for a all user path (!!
Which one