repeated cannot find shell.dll

[dcdowntown]

I get the cannot find shell.dll message when I reboot. It
was deleted from the winnt\system32 directory each time.
The problem cropped up yesterday when I had a CD from a DSL
provider crash my system, leaving a bunch of junk on my
system that I had to clean out manually. Can anyone help?
Pls reply to email address above.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I get the cannot find shell.dll message when I reboot. It
was deleted from the winnt\system32 directory each time.
The problem cropped up yesterday when I had a CD from a DSL
provider crash my system, leaving a bunch of junk on my
system that I had to clean out manually. Can anyone help?
Pls reply to email address above.

You can restore the file from c:\windows\system32\dllcache.

 

[dcdowntown]

To Pegasus: I restore the file from DLLCACHE but each time
I re-boot it gets wiped out of SYSTEM32. That's the part
that has me stumped. I cannot figure out what is causing
the file to be erased from SYSTEM32 when I re-boot (or shut
down). DC

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You obviously have a rogue process that deletes the file.
Apply NTFS permissions to it so that everyone can
read it but no one can modify or delete it. This means that
you need to seize ownership of the file.

 

[dcdowntown]

My mochine has FAT32. When I set the file properties on
the copied shell.dll (in system32) to read only, that does
not do the trick. Is there another way to do the
equivalent of applying NTFS permissions on a FAT32 Win2k
system? Also, the rogue process must be related to a
Verizon CD that was sent to me as a booby trap with our new
DSL service (& modem). After the CD crashed my system and
I called Verizon tech support and learned the CD was
irrelevant to me I went thru the computer, found a buried
Verizon directory, deleted it (no uninstall options were to
be found) and when thru the registry and cleaned out all
the Verizon references. That still left this deleted
shell.dll artifact. After that long-winded explanation, do
you have any ideas on how to id the rogue process? Thanks
a lot for the help so far. DC

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Run msconfig.sys (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
and use it to disable all processes that look suspicious.

You can apply only the most basic permissions to a FAT32
volume, e.g. you can set the read-only flag. It's easly overcome . . .

You could work around the problem by using the Task Scheduler
to restore the missing file automatically at boot time or at logon
time.