XP Startup - Must be simple because I can't solve it!

[hobferret]

Good morning all

I gotta problem with XP Pro

Since Tuesday this week; every time XP starts up I keep getting the system32 folder loaded

Everything else is there but this bloody darn folder is annoying me

Tried all the usual things, i.e. the startup folders, the registry and msconfig but nothing is found. Even done a full virus scan still to no avail

So whatever it is I honestly ain't got a clue, however, there must be one of you reading this who does know what is causing it!

Any suggestion, no matter how stupid, will be appreciated

/hobferret

I remember having some similar unusual behaviour quite a while back.

Check your

\Documents and Settings\??????\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\

for any Invalid/Stale links (*.lnk) etc. that a program "forgot" to uninstall. If the binary pointed to by the *.lnk is not there anymore (eg. system32 directory) then the directory will be opened by explorer.exe because the actual FILE does not exist.

MSCONFIG does not list/check the Quick Launch links. And this also assumes you have your "Quick Launch" toolbar VISIBLE in you TaskBar, but will ALSO exhibit SIMILAR behaviour if NOT visible.

Hope this helps you.

nullz

[hobferret]

nullz

Nothing there either mate

/hobferret

My recollection of your EXACT problem I had I think was wrong because it was quite a while ago (on XP also). I do remember it was VERY annoying and was either related to a STALE *.lnk or even old *.PIF or even a "custom" TaskBar "toolbar". So a search for "suspicious" stale *.lnk *.pif may be useful.

And perhaps on another tack, checking the folders
\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\
\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\

for any that you know are not standard/wanted may be useful because maybe an added Service *.dll is missing.

I do know that I solved it (for my similar annoying situation) and that it was related to some of above.

I cannot recall ALL the exact details unfortunately. My memory must fading

I hope this helps again

EDIT:

Ahh. Things are coming back to me I think. I remember now that stripper 2.07 final installed a Service (Device Manager -> Show Hidden Device -> engine???) that after I manually deleted the engine.sys (or ran "engine killer.bat") these explorer "system32" folder problems on startup occurred.

My ditto hopes yet again that this helps

[dedificator]

Try last version of Autoruns from sysinternals.
Now this prog is capable to show & edit all startup things, including services and so on ... , what is missing in msconfig. Nice.

[hobferret]

Thanks for all your replies

Just managed to fix it, lunchtime Friday. Got all messed up yesterday with the bloody terrorists bombings in London

Searching thru the registry and looking for anything related to system32 I found this:-

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell REG_SZ Explorer.exe C:\Windows\System32

Deleting that key has cured the problem

Thanks again

/hobferret

[SLV]

Simply try: Run->msconfig

[hobferret]

SLV

You obviously didn't read my first post, I had already done that

Anyways, it's fixed now see my post before this one

/hobferret

[JMI]

hobferret:

You and the rest of Britian please keep safe out there. This new lot obviously hasn't learned the lessons of history. London has been bombed may times since WWI and the Zepplines (not including internal religious issues). IRA bombers did not achieve their political aims with bombs and this group will not either. It is always inspirational the way London's very diverse population, with their widely differing political views, pulls themselves together when such senseless violence occurs and refuses to knuckle under to such barbarism.

Regards,

[hobferret]

JMI mate:

We will do our best at keeping safe, easier saying than doing in these troubled times. One never knows what the hell is going to happen next, the main concern for the Brits and others over here is the fact that this was not picked up by the security services.

The worst bit for me yesterday was the fact that I have a niece here in London, she always gets the tube at King's Cross underground around 8.45am, worse still was the fact she uses the Piccadilly line. Could not contact her at all and it was a worrying time, however, it transpired that all the mobile networks were down, eventually she rang around midday and boy was I relieved to hear her voice. She was very lucky, she was on the train immediately before the one which carried the bomb.

My condolences go out to those who died and their families and my sympathy to the ones who are injured their families too. For around 3 hours I believe I knew how they are feeling right now.

They can do what the hell they want but they will never succeed, I just hope that GWB and Mr Blair and the rest of the democratic world will use this to speed up their assault on terrorism. When they catch up with them they should put the whole lot together in a field with a cemtex collar around their necks, timed to go off at 1 minute intervals.

/hobferret

[Mkz]

Originally Posted by hobferret

Searching thru the registry and looking for anything related to system32 I found this:-

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell REG_SZ Explorer.exe C:\Windows\System32

Deleting that key has cured the problem

Looking at my registry, seems that the correct value would be simply "Explorer.exe", instead of "Explorer.exe C:\Windows\System32".
Apparently, when the key is missing, Winlogon uses Explorer as the default.

Maybe you were playing around with shell replacements, that failed to restore the correct value when uninstalling...?



As for the bombings, there's one thing that puzzles me.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings#Issues

It was reported on CBS News that a senior Israeli official said that British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before the explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city. An Associated Press report carried on a number of news sites, including The Guardian, attributed the initial report of a warning to an Israeli "Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity," but added Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's later denial on Israel Army Radio: "There was no early information about terrorist attacks." A similar report on the site of right-wing Israeli paper Israel National News / Arutz Sheva attributed the story to "Army Radio quoting unconfirmed reliable sources."

Is it me, or in most events such as this, the authorities always *seem* to have known beforehand at least *something* about what whas going to happen?

[JMI]

The difficulty with "knowing" is that there is often "too much information" and some of it is too untested to be considered "reliable." And as a simple, sad fact, we all know that "something is going to happen." The real problem is figuring out "where," "when," and by exactly "whom."

We simply have to take it as a "given" that there are people in most countries who will, if given enough time and opportunity, launch attacks against one group or another to advance their political, ethnic, and/or religious agenda with little or not concern for the consequences to others and often with the hope that mass casualties will frighten some government, or group or another into changing its position on something they want changed, or worst, will cause some to overreact and lash out at other innocent people and further the interests those causing the carnage are seeking to advance.

The trick is always to try not to become worse than those whom one is fighing in order to defeat them. It is most unfortunate that some countries have capitulated in the face of terrorist attacks, because that always simply emboldens others to attempt the same result in other locations.

But none of this is really new to a student of history. Only some of the weapons are better, and, therefor, the potential for wanton death and destruction greatly increased. People who view themselves superior to others on the basis of ethnicity, politics, and/or religion seem not to have great difficulty going that step further and finding self-justification for the "elimination" of all those who do not appear willing to bend to or share their own view of their self assumed "superiority."

Unfortunately, such people fail to see the moral bankruptcy of their own actions and simply can not be reasoned with and are unwilling to accept any other path. These choices leave society with no other option but to hunt them down and eliminate them, but that also is a path which may lead to grave consequences for society seeking to improve its own security.

Regards,

[hobferret]

Well said JMI

I could not agree more!

To Mkz the registry branch HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell REG_SZ Explorer.exe C:\Windows\System32

Well you may have noticed that I was not so stupid as to delete the whole thing, just the C:\Windows\System32 part of it. No offense mate, just thought I would point it out.

/hobferret

[Mkz]

From your text I understood that you actually removed the key

Originally Posted by hobferret

Deleting that key has cured the problem

It would't surprise me that if the key is missing, Winlogon would use Explorer.exe as a default, altough I leave that experiment for someone else to try