Corrupted folders/window views

I hope somebody can help, otherwise it looks like I'm going to have to back
up 30GB of data, format my hard drive and re-install Windows ME and all my
applications.

When I open certain windows, both folders and programs, they are completely
empty. For example nothing appears in the Control Panel and when I try to
run System Restore a blank window opens. Also, sometimes when I try to run
System Restore I get the message "System Restore cannot run until you
restart the computer. Please restart the computer, and run System Restore
again". Even when I do this I then simply get the blank window. Some folders
do show items but they appear to be "Image View" folders that have had their
layout altered i.e. the items appear in a pane on the left of the window.

The process that caused this was an attempted install of Norton Internet
Security 2005. When I first started the install it told me that I had to
first remove previous versions of Norton Antivirus and Firewall and restart
before installing the new version. I removed the old versions by the
add/remove programs, restarted my computer and began the install. The
install stopped soon after starting, leaving me with a blank, black screen.
I pressed the reset button on my computer which restarted but with all the
problems above.

Thanks, hopefully,
Bernard Johnson.
Remove the TRASH to reply by email.

Bernard,

> When I open certain windows, both folders and programs, they are
> completely empty. For example nothing appears in the Control Panel
> and when I try to run System Restore a blank window opens.

See KB 309663 - "Control Panel, Help, and System Restore Are Empty or
Partially Empty" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=309663) for a possible
explanation for this problem which can occur if one or more of the Jscript
registry key settings are incorrect. or the Jscript.dll file is missing or
damaged. The KB article explains how to fix the problem which involves
using regedit to check and possibly modify entries in the registry.

> Also,
> sometimes when I try to run System Restore I get the message "System
> Restore cannot run until you restart the computer. Please restart the
> computer, and run System Restore again".

Check that you don't have a wininit.ini file in your Windows folder. If
you do, rename this to wininit.old and retry System Restore. If this works
then you possibly have a program that creates a wininit.ini file each time
you boot your system. One known example is tgcmd.exe, another is a
program called "ACCESS DENIED". If you have tgcmd.exe I understand that
disabling it in MSConfig | Startup will have no adverse effect on your
system but enable you to use System Restore. Likewise ACCESS DENIED
needs to be "switched off" whilst using SR to either create or restore to
a previous checkpoint. McAfee's Spam Killer also seems to create a new
wininit.ini file each time the system is booted. See also MS KB 274092 -
"Error Message: System Restore Cannot Run Until You Restart the Computer"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=274092).

If this isn't the reason for your problem then try running
SCANREG /FIX
from a command prompt such as Start | Run. Note that the system will
re-boot so don't have any applications open when doing this. I suggest
this because the same message is also displayed when the registry has been
corrupted in some way. scanreg /fix attempts to repair that damage.

Hopefully one or the other will solve your problem and allow you to create
a manual check point. If so then please continue with the rest of the
test.

If however you find that you keep getting a wininit.ini file created each
time you boot your system another known cause is due to having unwanted
malware but hopefully we won't have to go down that path.

> The process that caused this was an attempted install of Norton
> Internet Security 2005.

That this caused you problems isn't that unexpected given the
incompatibility of this and most other products from Symantec with the Win
Me operating system.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Bernard Johnson wrote:

> I hope somebody can help, otherwise it looks like I'm going to have
> to back up 30GB of data, format my hard drive and re-install Windows
> ME and all my applications.
>
> When I open certain windows, both folders and programs, they are
> completely empty. For example nothing appears in the Control Panel
> and when I try to run System Restore a blank window opens. Also,
> sometimes when I try to run System Restore I get the message "System
> Restore cannot run until you restart the computer. Please restart the
> computer, and run System Restore again". Even when I do this I then
> simply get the blank window. Some folders do show items but they
> appear to be "Image View" folders that have had their layout altered
> i.e. the items appear in a pane on the left of the window.
>
> The process that caused this was an attempted install of Norton
> Internet Security 2005. When I first started the install it told me
> that I had to first remove previous versions of Norton Antivirus and
> Firewall and restart before installing the new version. I removed the
> old versions by the add/remove programs, restarted my computer and
> began the install. The install stopped soon after starting, leaving
> me with a blank, black screen. I pressed the reset button on my
> computer which restarted but with all the problems above.