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Desk.cpl

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8 replies

by earthworm

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I have a win98se computer that I installed Nvidia's reference drivers on over Diamonds Manufacturer drivers. In the process my desk.cpl file has been corrupted. I can no longer change any of the desktop settings due to this error. Does anyone know how to repair the desk.cpl file? The file in the cabs is deskw98.cpl or something, and restoring it also gives the same error. I have also tried going back to the diamond drivers and to standard VGA drivers, and none of them fix the cpl file.

8 replies

by earthworm

sorry for taking so long to rate this question. I made a backup copy of Win98 and then deleted the windows directory, and re-installed windows for a temporary solution.

After reading your posts, I went back to the system to try a few of your solutions, so i deleted the temporary Windows and restored my backup, and the backup worked?! I am not sure what changed but the CPL error had gone away.

So thank you all for your help, they were all good sugestions. So i am giving all of you partial credit. Thanks.

Earthworm

by hozed

Well, the problem isn't the CPL file itself. Many drivers add Additional fields to the Display Control panel that are specific for their cards. Its likely that one of these components is hosed. When the Display Control Panel tries to load, it dies because the component isn't working.

To fix:

First, the simple way.... restart in Safe Mode. Will it let you into the Display Properties now? If so, reinstall the driver and see if that does it.

Second method..... delete the INF files for the drivers out of C:\Windows\Inf. Open the device manager and delete your video card. REboot. Windows should detect the card and ask you for drivers. Point it to the driver and then reboot when the install is done. Hopefully that worked....

Third.... start like the above, but load the Standard VGA driver. Then delete all the driver files (DLL's and SYS's, etc) from C:\Windows and C:\Windows\System. Look in the installation folder for the drivers to see what files to look for. Then delete any registr

by hozed

err, continued from above.......

Then delete any registry entries for the drivers. Now, reboot. Open the Device Manager and delete your video card. Reboot and let Windows detect it..... etc.....

It those don't do it.... reload Win98.

by mmccaskill69

In windows 98' the desk.cpl file is named deskw95.cpl in the cabinet file, then must be renamed to desk.cpl once extracted to the system directory.

Rename desk.cpl.

Uninstall the incontol tools in add/remove programs.

Remove the .inf files for the display adapter in c:\windows\inf or c:\windows\inf\other.

Restart the system into safe mode.

Change the driver for the display adapter to the standard display adapter (VGA).

Restart the system.

Extract deskw95.cpl using SFC into the system directory.

Do a find for deskw95.cpl and rename the file to desk.cpl.

Reinstall the driver/incontrol tools for the display adapter.

Restart the system.

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