[911pchelp]

My father upgraded to SP2 (ie installed it on his XP Home, SP1 PC) - inadvertently? ... he's 85 and knows enough about PC's to be dangerous. He downloaded the SP2 upgrade overnight and then installed it and says it wouldn't let him stop along the way. Now his desktop is empty (themes can be set) but whole screen is the theme - no icons - and the system icons ('My Computer', etc) apparently can't be added (I only talked on the phone and tried to lead him through the process).

Fortunately, the programs (Firefox, Outlook Express, etc) seem to be functioning correctly (except that some of his e-mail folders are missing - I assume they're still on his C: drive and can be found through the 'maintenance' feature of the OE 'tools' option).

Before I attempt to repopulate his desktop with the program icons from the All Programs list (or the Program Files folder) ... is there anyone who has run into this situation? If so, what did you do? And/or, can I expect the Desktop folder to be intact and there's maybe a problem in the Registry.

Edited by 911pchelp, 19 October 2007 - 09:11 PM.

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Right click on desktop. Go to Arrange Icons By and check Show Deskop Icons.

[The Skeptic]

Right click on desktop. Go to Arrange Icons By and check Show Deskop Icons.

[Mr Freeze]

crtl...alt...delete
click file run(new task)
type this in sfc /scannow
note the space between c and /
click ok

let the windows file protection run
restart computer

Edited by Mr Freeze, 14 October 2007 - 02:52 PM.

[911pchelp]

Thank you - I'll try that

[headwayne]

Nothing techno here just want to say Bravo to the 85yo who is keeping on top of things and trying. How many are content to just sit and lie about instead of keeping themselves mentally and physically engaged. 3 cheers for your father!!!

[911pchelp]

Thank you all !!

Desktop problem WAS found to be that the 'Show Desktop ICONs" was turned off (and the "Lock" was on) - fixed - but WHY?

OE was a bigger problem. OE had been restarted from scratch ... i.e. all the old email folders, the email accounts (i.e.all accounts), and the Address Book were gone! Fortunately, the old email folders were still on his disk - so with a little filename manipulation I was able to restore them. Fortunately also, my father still had the .csv file of addresses we made when he 'left' AOL. The email accounts were easy to reconstruct. The question still remains WHAT HAPPENED ??

I instilled on him that 'arbitrary' "clicking" was bad and he shouldn't click (and maybe start something) unless he knew exactly what was going to happen .... The question still remains WHY DID IT HAPPEN ??

He swears the PC is running slower .... so in the future we'll run sfc /scannow (we didn't before because he couldn't find the original XP CD .... but has it now ....... I think).

He has AVG AV installed (has for many months) and has several anti-spyware programs (SypBot, and others) - and scans regularly - so I'm hoping the viruses, etc are not his problem.

Anyway, Thanks for the help.

[The Skeptic]

It is impossible to tell exactly what happened but it is related, without doubt, to the installation of sp-2. it's a very large collection of files and drivers that needs ideal conditions to be installed properly. When you install it on a computer that is loaded with applications that has been running for sometime, when you have downloaded, running and deleted files, you can almost surely expect trouble. In such cases I never install sp-2 and leave the computer running without until a moment arrives and the computer must be reformat. That's the ideal time to install sp-2.

The problem is with Windows automatic drivers. There are three, at least, that can cause lots of problem: sp-2. internet explorer 7 and windows media player 11. Personally I think that xp is a mature program and current updates are of minor importance. For this reason, after formatting, I download all avaialable updates (about 80) and then cancel automatic updates altogether.