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persona

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Windows XP My Computer

Hi,

When I open "My Computer", the C:\  icon is no longer an icon of a hard drive. When I try to double-click on the icon to enter the C:\, I get the message:

"Please go to the Control Panel to install and configure system components."

and I can't get in. I can however, get to the c:\ by using the address bar.
I want to know what this message means, and how I can get My Computer back to how it was before.

Thanks
Avatar of Whalrus
Whalrus

Very odd.
What version of XP are you using?
Have you done any updating since you first installed/purchased the machine?
Have any 'friends' been playing around or have accounts on the machine that don't use passwords?
Those answers would be appreciated before I can make any judgements.

-Whalrus
Avatar of persona

ASKER

I am using the XP Professional version,
the last time I updated anything was 3 days ago,
and I didn't have this problem last night.
My little brother did use his account, but he
was only playing some game.
Try this:
Log on a local machine administrator

Click START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL
Click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS
Click ADD/REMOVE WINDOWS COMPONENTS
Select all the components you need installed
typically all you need checked are:
Accessories and Utilities
Indexing Services
Internet Explorer
Networking Services
Update Root Certificate
Windows Media Player


You may choose other components if you wish.
I believe the message means that your system components are not installed or configured properly.

Without more information it may be difficult for me to help you out.

GEM
Good point, Gem. I forgot to mention that. Thanks;)
Also, since you said it didn't happen a few days ago..Perhaps it was something you downloaded, or perhaps you left TS(Terminal Services) running still.
Start-Run-Msconfig-Services-Uncheck Terminal Services.
Never know, someone could be just having fun with you by changing the icons and such. Better safe than sorry.

-Whalrus
Avatar of persona

ASKER

Hmm.. I tried your suggestions, and the problem is still there  :T
I take it you rebooted after the fixes we gave you..since the machine would more than likely ask for a reboot at some point in time. If all else fails you're able to re-install Windows and start from scratch again. This way you know nothing is wrong, and atleast you won't have all that stuff cluttering your hard drive ;)  But seriously, I had that problem with my Windows 98 machine and it was just being funky, that's the nature of Windows I suppose (Go Linux!)
Now..For redundancy, incase you do decide to wipe the drive, have your brother drop everything he wants to keep/save/backup from the machine in a single folder marked 'backup' or some name like that and should burn it or whatever it is you have then go about blowing the OS away and re-installing. Hope it works out.

-Whalrus
Avatar of sramesh2k
It seems that the registry association for the DRIVE is corrupted.

Create a .REG file and right click and choose "merge". Copy the contents below (from Windows Registry........ to the end) and create a file called "1.reg"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive]
@="Drive"
"EditFlags"=hex:d2,01,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\SHELL32.DLL,8"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell]
@="none"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Backup]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Backup\command]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ntbackup.exe"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find]
"SuppressionPolicy"=dword:00000080

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find\command]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
  00,5c,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,00,72,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,\
  65,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find\ddeexec]
@="[FindFolder(\"%l\", %I)]"
"NoActivateHandler"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find\ddeexec\application]
@="Folders"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\find\ddeexec\topic]
@="AppProperties"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\PartitionMagic 7.0]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\PartitionMagic 7.0\command]
@="C:\\Program Files\\PowerQuest\\PartitionMagic 7.0\\WINNT\\PMAGICNT.EXE"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Offline Files]
@="{750fdf0e-2a26-11d1-a3ea-080036587f03}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Sharing]
@="{f81e9010-6ea4-11ce-a7ff-00aa003ca9f6}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Symantec.Norton.Antivirus.IEContextMenu]
@="{5345A4D5-41EB-4A2F-9616-CE1D4F6C35B2}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{59099400-57FF-11CE-BD94-0020AF85B590}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{fbeb8a05-beee-4442-804e-409d6c4515e9}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\DragDropHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\DragDropHandlers\WinRAR]
@="{B41DB860-8EE4-11D2-9906-E49FADC173CA}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\DragDropHandlers\WinZip]
@="{E0D79305-84BE-11CE-9641-444553540000}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\FolderExtensions]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\FolderExtensions\{fbeb8a05-beee-4442-804e-409d6c4515e9}]
@=""
"DriveMask"=dword:00000020

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\Sharing]
@="{f81e9010-6ea4-11ce-a7ff-00aa003ca9f6}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{1F2E5C40-9550-11CE-99D2-00AA006E086C}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{6615a4a0-1514-11d3-9eec-0004acdddb3b}]
@="INCDEX.DLL"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{7988B573-EC89-11cf-9C00-00AA00A14F56}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{D3B1DE00-6B94-1069-8754-08002B2BD64F}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{ECCDF543-45CC-11CE-B9BF-0080C87CDBA6}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{fbeb8a05-beee-4442-804e-409d6c4515e9}]
@=""

If this does not solve the problem, run a System Restore and roll back to previous restore point.
Persona:
Let me make certain I understand your problem.
1. You double click on "My Computer" on your desktop.
2. When the window opens there are no drives listed? There are Icon's , but no drives listed right?
3. Do you have Winzip running on your machine? If yes do the Icons you see in this folder look like the Icon's winzip uses? "Looks like a C-Clamp sqeezing a folder?"
4. If you do have Winzip, have you recently tried unzipping any documents? Did you select the "save full path info" option in winzip? If yes unselect it.
5. I suspect that maybe your hard drive was zipped into a zip file...just guessing.

GEM

Hey Whalrus "Go Linux!" or MAC :)

At least with a MAC you get all the benefits of a true Unix environment, plus if you have to run a Microsoft OS Product you can do that too!
Avatar of persona

ASKER

GEM, when I double click My Computer, the drives are listed, but the icon for C:\ is a different icon (not a zip icon though)


sramesh2k, I merged it, and nothing happened, how do I do a system restore?


Hey guys, something really weird happened, now when I double click the icon, a setup program for a program i installed a long time ago runs :S very confusing...


Click STARt > Run and type "%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe"

System restore willrun. choose a previous restore point.
Avatar of persona

ASKER

Thank you,

after scanning my computer twice, I found a trojan the 2nd time it scanned..
could this be a reason?

It could be a reason. Virus and trojans may affect the file and registry associations. Yoy may cure the trojan and if unsuccessful, run a system restore.
Avatar of persona

ASKER

tried the system restore.. no luck.. :(
ok. when you right click on the C: drive, which action is set to BOLD (default).
Avatar of persona

ASKER

there is none, but oddly enough, it actually says autoplay in the right-click menu
Avatar of persona

ASKER

Well...  I finally solved the problem myself.
I suggest that anyone who has this kind of problem read this.

If you have any file called "autorun.inf" on your hard drive, it will try to autoplay it if you attempt to open it.

persona:
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eecomputings

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