Win XP Pro ... no access to Explorer.exe, or any files, except Des

[Guest]

My boss bought a new PC with Win XP Pro, trashed it with adware, spyware, and porn. He tried to "fix" it with info from "experts". He loaded Spybot and finished trahing the registery. I can access the Desktop, and any programs linked to it, but I can not access any drives, system tools, or the Explorer file system. All I want to do is access the file system and save off some business data files from MS Office. Then I will re-format and reinstall Win XP Pro.

Thank you for any assistance you can lend!

 

[David Nimon]

Well, if it is spybot 1.3, then by default, it not only backs up the
registry but also creates a restore point prior to doing its operation.

Try going back to a previous restore point to see whether the system is
somewhat more stable.

Try Ad-Aware if you're not happy with spybot.

--
David Nimon
dnimonREMOVE@##sympatico.ca

My boss bought a new PC with Win XP Pro, trashed it with adware, spyware,

and porn. He tried to "fix" it with info from "experts". He loaded Spybot
and finished trahing the registery. I can access the Desktop, and any
programs linked to it, but I can not access any drives, system tools, or the
Explorer file system. All I want to do is access the file system and save
off some business data files from MS Office. Then I will re-format and
reinstall Win XP Pro.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your response ... I am aware of the backup that SpyBot makes, however, in my saga, there is MUCH more to the story! Nortons and Nortons phone Support were also involved and after they threw up their hands, SpyBots backup info was lost. The registry keys were listed, but grayed out, and not available to restore. GREAT example of one NOVICE and TOO MANY EXPERTS!

As far as system clean utils, I use iClean, SpyBot, HiJack and AdAware, all four, because each program does somethings better overall. If I could install anything on this other PC, it would be jRegutil.exe and I could repair the Reg,

My problem remains, I can access SpyBot, ONLY, because it is a Desktop Icon. I can not access the rest of the file system through the Explorer.exe, or, the Start button. Any other suggestions?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[RonK]

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode ?
If you can you could attempt a system restore wit the XP system restore to a
point before the problem got so bad.

 

[WinGuy]

Hello, BBailey

May I jump into the conversation? Sounds like you're rapidly turning into an
expert yourself! <smile>

Can you boot into safe mode (tapping the F8 key whiloe booting)? Can you
then click Start and then Run and type in "msconfig" (without the quote
marks) and will it run? If so, in msconfig select Diagnostic mode. That will
turn off all services and startups that are not essential to windows. That
would take effect on the next boot, but before that now select the
"Selective Startup" and re-enable usage of the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files
(your problem probably does not exist with usage of those 2 files). Then
reboot normally. When the notice appears about being in selective startup,
select to not tell you again and then click OK (do not click the cancel
button). A lot of things will not work properly because thier services and
startups are now disabled via msconfig.

You should now be able to use explorer, via Start | Run | Explorer. If you
can not then your core operating system is probably damaged and might need a
new "update" repair install; if so then do it while Windows is running as it
is at this point by running setup.exe on the Windows CD. Be carefull not to
do a "new" install! If using OEM Windows instead of the retail version of
Windows then you might end up having to do a full system restore, but first
try this with any XP cd (of the same version you use, Home or Pro) in the
CD-ROM dirive:
Start | Run
SFC /SCANNOW
Start | Run
SFC /PURGECACHE
and then reboot normally. That replaces certain "protected" files. Run
msconfig and enable services one by one, booting inbetween, and test for the
problem to re-appear (if so then don't use the affected service, post here
in this topic which service it is that you can not use). Do the same for the
Startups tab. Yes, takes time and a lot of rebooting but this is how you
diagnose what is causing a problem. It is essential that you do all Micrsoft
updates after the problem is repaired or you reinstall the operating system,
be sure to enable the built-in XP firewwall before you go on the internet.
Good luck!

 

[David Candy]

Put the commands into a shortcut. Then dbl click the shortcut. Use File - Open dialogs to manage the file system (right click stuff as the default action is select).