[hasletal]

My new laptop was running very sweet, with hours spent transferring data, programs, settings, etc. from my
desktop. (I like my favorites menu with very custom icons) Then I ran the registry scan (due to a pop up from "Winfixer" that I couldn't get rid of) downloaded from pctools with tweakiu. It "found" over 400 "problems" and I chose to let it "fix" them. Everything seemed cool still, until I turned off the computer. When I turned it back on, it booted like a new machine from the box, with no users expect "administrator" and "guest," so of course all of my stuff was gone!!
Is this what happens when you trust a program to mess with your registry? Am I stuck with starting all over?!
Hasletal

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Not sure...

Double click MY COMPUTER, choose LOCAL DISK, choose DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

What do you see.

These are your profiles. We may be able to retrieve some information even if the profile is toast

[gerryf]

Not sure...

Double click MY COMPUTER, choose LOCAL DISK, choose DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS

What do you see.

These are your profiles. We may be able to retrieve some information even if the profile is toast

[hasletal]

I see profiles for administrator, guest, and Frank(the Dad-in-law who gave it to me) like when I got it.
The programs I added seem to have made it, but none of the data (pictures, icons).

[gerryf]

C:\Documents and Settings\Frank\My Documents

anything in there that you are looking for?

[hasletal]

Yeah, my icon library is still in there. When I got the machine, it wouldn't let me delete "Frank" as a profile, I guess because he is the one it is registered to. So instead of changing to a new profile, when I got it I just changed the username to mine (even though the documents and setting files remained "Frank") and used it that way. So now that probably saved many of my files, since his is the default user, now labeled as "Frank" again, until I change it again. Does that make sense?
I just have to retransfer my pictures to this machine again and organize them, and recreate my elaborate Favorites list in IE, along with some other settings. My question is, since I thought PCTools.com and that tweakiu stuff was reputable, how is is that registry scan nailed me like that?!!

[gerryf]

I do not know pctools, so I cannot say.

My guess is you had a corrupt registry hive and "fixing" it made things worse

I am firmly in the camp of giving "registry" utilities a wide berth

[hasletal]

First of all, let me do what I should have done before, and THANK YOU very much for your thoughtful replies!
Perhaps if I had a "corrupt registry hive," maybe this is worth it to start over. I just wish my Norton or something else could be better at keeping junk from getting in, without slowing down my internet connection much. I'm a dreamer, I know. But I update and run Norton, adaware, and winpatrol, and it still seems like a losing battle.
Looking at the control panel, under systems-advanced-user profiles, both "administrator" and "Frank" are there. But if I look at the user accounts, only "administrator" is there.( and guest) Do you think I could recover Frank as a user account?
Thanks again.