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file error on startup - shell.dll

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by ricsho

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On startup I get a popup box,"file error" with the contents reading, "shell.dll not found". This occurs while other programs, i.e NORTON, are still loading. Have performed system cleanups,and such with no luck. Have xp/pentium 1.2 My brouser was hyjacked 1 week ago by coolweb/msiesh. Un-installed MSIESH from my add/remove & then learned I should have used my LAVASOFT-ADAWARE to clean coolweb. Since then have had the file error. No other message if I right click the error msg. All programs seem to be running ok, but have had some odd stalls or windows "not responding", such as (my computer - file search). Any suggestions to resolve this?

4 replies

by pctech

Hi
CoolWebSearch can be difficult to remove. Ad Aware usually does not do the trick.
Major Geeks ( http://www.majorgeeks.com ) has other tools that are better suited for removing Cool Web.
( http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html ). This link will take you to where you can download "CWShredder " and " HiJack This ". CWShredder very effective. This app was written specifically to remove Cool Web Search.
HiJack This REQUIRES the user to have a strong knowledge of what should go. HiJack this will open specific areas of the registry and the user must decide what goes by checking the boxes of what you want to remove from the registry. It is always a good practive to back up the registry before running HiJack This.
To back up your registry you will use REGEDIT to open the registry. Click on File>Export>All and save a copy of the registry to the My Documents folder. Should you need to restore the snapshot of the then current registry, all you need to do is to double click the .reg file you saved in the My Documnets folder.

While you are at Major Geeks, check our AIDA32. An excellent tool for gathering system information. I prefer this to BelArc.

I hope this helps you.

by ricsho

Thanks for the reply, but had already run CWShredder. Coolweb is gone. But still have the file error/shell dll. I mentioned Coolweb incase it may be linked to my current error. Perhaps something unistalled in-correctly when I add/removed MSEISH.

by cntrysky

Do you get this problem in safemode? If you don't then try clean boot. Use Msconfig and turn off all startup items and turn off all third party services while leaving the Microsoft ones hidden.

by ricsho

I solved my own problem. Thanks for all advice. Did a ctrl/alt/delete at start up while everything was loading and noticed "WOWexec.exe and OCR" where not running. Ends up my OCR program was a 16 bit and the shell.dll (16 bit) got removed when I uninstalled MSIESH. WOW enables 16 bit to run on a 32 bit system(if I understand correctly). Uninstalled my OCR program (requiring some regedit) and now all is running fine. WOW a MICROSOFT feature, (windows on windows)is for (I think) NT and XP to allow 16 bit programs to run. Thanks again, your comments helped.

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