Bill S.
October 5th 04, 05:54 AM
I'm working on an XP-Home system for a user here and I have to say
it's broken in a most peculiar manner. When I right-click on a file,
folder, shortcut, etc. and select "cut" or "copy" and then right click
in another folder, or on the desktop, or wherever, the "paste" option
is totally greyed out. I can see it in the menu, but I can't select
the Paste option at all.
Control-X or Control-C followed by Control-V have the same negative
result. Copying and deleting through the command line works.
When I try to run a System Restore, the process flatly refuses to
start. Ctrl-Alt-Del shows it "running", but no System Restore panel
opens. If I double-click on the rstrui.exe icon in
%SystemRoot%\System32\restore , a blank window opens up - nothing
inside. No icons, buttons or dialogues. I can only kill it via
Ctrl-Alt-Del.
Installing XP SP2 is fruitless as well; it abends with "The specified
file could not be located."
I thought I'd run an install of Norton AV 2003 (then patch with new
defs.), but XP reports that the Windows Installer Service cannot be
located!
I used the shell to move SpyBot S&D and AdAware over to the system, I
updated their defs and they had a field day - THOUSANDS of entries
were catalogued. I cleaned them up in due course (please note that
the abovementioned peculiarities were already going on BEFORE I ran
the spyware removal programs). I ran Hijackthis.exe and
cwshredder.exe and cleaned up more junk.
Still, copying and pasting is unusable. I hooked the drive in the
offending system up as a slave on a known good system and ran Norton
from the new master system's C: drive, but only one virus was found
(and removed), a virus common to P2P networking.
It's really come down to this: I'm prepared to tell the customer that
I'm going to nuke the HD and reinstall, but I'd rather not if there's
something I'm just overlooking in my tiredness and frustration. Can
anyone help with this one? Or am I just stuck?
it's broken in a most peculiar manner. When I right-click on a file,
folder, shortcut, etc. and select "cut" or "copy" and then right click
in another folder, or on the desktop, or wherever, the "paste" option
is totally greyed out. I can see it in the menu, but I can't select
the Paste option at all.
Control-X or Control-C followed by Control-V have the same negative
result. Copying and deleting through the command line works.
When I try to run a System Restore, the process flatly refuses to
start. Ctrl-Alt-Del shows it "running", but no System Restore panel
opens. If I double-click on the rstrui.exe icon in
%SystemRoot%\System32\restore , a blank window opens up - nothing
inside. No icons, buttons or dialogues. I can only kill it via
Ctrl-Alt-Del.
Installing XP SP2 is fruitless as well; it abends with "The specified
file could not be located."
I thought I'd run an install of Norton AV 2003 (then patch with new
defs.), but XP reports that the Windows Installer Service cannot be
located!
I used the shell to move SpyBot S&D and AdAware over to the system, I
updated their defs and they had a field day - THOUSANDS of entries
were catalogued. I cleaned them up in due course (please note that
the abovementioned peculiarities were already going on BEFORE I ran
the spyware removal programs). I ran Hijackthis.exe and
cwshredder.exe and cleaned up more junk.
Still, copying and pasting is unusable. I hooked the drive in the
offending system up as a slave on a known good system and ran Norton
from the new master system's C: drive, but only one virus was found
(and removed), a virus common to P2P networking.
It's really come down to this: I'm prepared to tell the customer that
I'm going to nuke the HD and reinstall, but I'd rather not if there's
something I'm just overlooking in my tiredness and frustration. Can
anyone help with this one? Or am I just stuck?