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Windsows ME

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by nhoek

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I have a friend that has a PC with Windows ME on (ya ME yikes). Anyway I am not that familiar with ME. The problem is the PC boots up to show the wallpapwer and nothing else. Not toolbar, no icons. It just sits there. He is not sure what happend, kids were using it. Even in safe mode that is all it will do. CTL/ALT/DEL shows nothing at all running?

any ideas?

7 replies

by wcp

You may try

1. Clean up startup programs,
2. Do System Restore,
3. Reinstall Windows on top of the current one, or
4. Backup data and clean install Windows ME (better yet XP).

More in detail,

1. Boot to Safe Mode. Start | Run and type ?msconfig? without the quotes and click on Startup tab. Note what programs start when Windows is loaded. Disable all of them. Reboot. If problem got resolved, one or more of the startup programs are the cause. Enable Startup programs one at a time to find the culprit. If this does not resolve the problem, scan for virus/worm/Trojan (you may have to connect to other computer). If this does not resolve your problem, do System Restore.

2. Boot to Safe Mode. Start | Run and type ?msconfig? and click on ?System Restore?. If you cannot boot to Safe Mode, refer to MS KB Article 279736 on ?How to Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt? or http://tinyurl.com/v3pa.

If this does not resolve your problem, do reinstall Windows.
If all else fails, clean install Windows.

by wcp

I guess I need a cup of coffee. Forget ?Cleanup startup programs? because you could not do a thing in Safe Mode.

Try System Restore as in 2. If it works, then do virus scan. If this does not work, do virus scan anyway.

Do 3 and then 4 if necessary.

by nhoek

I cant do a system restore, unless you can do it from DOS. I do notice somthing weird in the Windows\temp folder. There are tons of TMP files all beginning with KMDxxxx.tmp (the xxxx's represent different numbers). There are tons of them, and with two common sizes, 6,439 and 11,066. I am going through and deleteing the .tmp files and then going to try to scan the system for virus from dos.

by wcp

Because you seemed either you misunderstood doing System Restore from a Command Prompt or could not get the MS Article, I printed the article for you. It works. I have done it many times.
And do not forget to do virus scan as I suggested.

This article was previously published under Q279736
SUMMARY
Windows Millennium Edition (Me) includes the System Restore tool, but you cannot start the System Restore tool from a command prompt. Because of this, it may be useful to start the System Restore tool when you are unable to start your Windows Me-based computer normally or in Safe mode. This article describes how to start the System Restore tool when you cannot start your Windows Me-based computer normally or in Safe mode.
MORE INFORMATION
To start the System Restore tool when you cannot start your Windows Me-based computer normally or in Safe mode, you can temporarily change the Windows shell from Explorer.exe to Progman.exe:
1. Start your computer by using the Windows Me Startup disk.
2. At the Startup menu, choose Minimum Boot.
3. At the command prompt, type edit c:\windows\system.ini, and then press ENTER.
4. Edit the shell= line so that it looks like this:
shell=progman.exe
5. Press ALT+F, and then press S to save the changes to the System.ini file.
6. Press ALT+F, and then press X.
7. Remove your Windows Me Startup disk, and then restart your computer. When your computer restarts, Program Manager should start. If Program Manager does not start, repeat steps 1 through 7, being careful to follow these steps exactly, and then continue to the next step.
8. On the File menu, click Run, type msconfig in the Command Line box, and then press ENTER.
9. Click Launch System Restore to begin restoring your computer to a previous, functional state.
Notes

by wcp

After you configure your computer to start Program Manager (Progman.exe), you can also start the System Restore tool by typing c:\windows\system\restore\rstrui.exe at a command prompt, and then pressing ENTER.
If you still cannot use System Restore, repeat steps 1 through 6. In step 4, change the shell= line so that it reads:
shell=explorer.exe
This sets the Windows shell back to Explorer.exe so that you can continue troubleshooting.
For additional information about the System Restore tool, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
267951 Description of the System Restore Utility in Windows Me

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