Some bizarre Problems with Windows XP Home

[Guest]

Hi I am running Win XP Home on my laptop. It all started when one day I saw a
folder named "Documents" in "My Computer". Whenever I tried to open it, I got
the message "Access denied". I couldn't even delete it. There were two other
usual folders thar were accessible by me - my own documents folder and
"Guest's Documents". I checked my computer thoroughly with the best
anti-virus and anti-spyware programs and nothing was found.

Someone suggested to do a system restore. After doing that-

1. The unaccesible "Documents" folder is still there.
2. My Windows calculator, wordpad and paintbrush programs are gone !!
3. I am in a wireless LAN network. But now in the "My network places" I
can't find out the other computers. Internet is working fine.

Mine is a Dell laptop and their policy is that they don't give you the
Windows CD and hence I can't reinstall Windows !!

Finally, in a bid to free up my disc space, I have deleted all system
restore information so can't go back again to initial point !

Please help me out of these strange problems. By the way, all my other
programs are working just fine.

Thanks a lot in advance

 

[Ron Sommer]

You don't have a XP CD, but the XP install files are on the hard drive.
Start. Settings, Add or Remove Programs, Windows Components, Accessories,
Details button, Accessories, Details button...........

What exactly did you delete?

 

[Guest]

Things were messed up somehow and you made them worse.

I would buy an OEM copy of XP, which is much cheaper that the full retail
edition, run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard under Accessories =>
System Tools, save the data file to a CD/DVD, reformat the C: drive, perform
a clean installation of XP, and then restore the settings and data files.

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/