mrl325i

Hello. My Dell laptop froze the other day while using Word. I shut it down (via Start, etc.) and when I rebooted the Windows screen said "Preparing your desktop" and then a totally new desktop came up and my icons, defaults, etc seemed to be all back to the factory defaults. If I look in C:/users I see my files and stuff still there but I am not able to restore the pc to its previous state. I tried "System Restore"and it had no effect -- even running it in safe mode.

Also, if I make some changes -- like making Firefox the default browser -- when I reboot the machine again it just reverts back to the "preparing your desktop" routine and resets everything.

Dell has been no help and I cannot find anything on the Microsoft boards. Help! Thanks.

frank200

When you login to your user account do you see your desktop icons in c:\users\your user account\desktop. You have not specified this in your post all you said was you can see your user data.

mrl325i

Yes, they are there.

kinbard

Might be a corrupted profile. I would be lazy and create a folder on the root of c:, move all your files you want to keep into it, log in as admin and delete the profile, then recreate it.

__________________

Half viking, half pirate, stronger than both
5 Steps
XP Repair

frank200

Sounds as though you are logging in as if a new user every time. Check whic actual username and profile you are under at an elevated command prompt by typing in SET as follows:

Capture.JPG

mrl325i

Frank: Thank you.

I rebooted, hit F8, and booted to safe mode with command prompt. At Set, I see the screen that you posted. The following info is interesting:

Homepath=\Users\Temp
LocalAppData=C:Users\Temp\AppData\Local

Temp=C:\Users\Temp\AppData\Local\Temp
TMP=C:\Users\Temp\AppData\Local\Temp

Username=MMM (this would seem to be correct)
USERPROFILE=C:\Users\Temp (this does not seem correct)


The username on this laptop, or the administrator, is MMM, and that is not showing up in the same places that I see your name in the SET screen.

Can you suggest a solution?

Mark

frank200

Something is corrupted as you login to your user account. The culprit may be Winlogon.exe but there is no way to be sure. Even though you login to the correct user account your system variables are being set as though your username is TEMP. This could be a virus that has infected your computer. There is no way of knowing for sure.

I am assuming Winlogon.exe because that is the module which prompts you for username an password and therefore likely to set those system variables that you are looking at. I can't guarantee a solution but you can try a few things.

To check the integrity of that module only do this at an elevated command prompt:

SFC /SCANFILE=c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINLOGON.EXE

If it finds it corrupted from a virus or whatever you may be in luck and that may be all you need to do. If not , you may have other system files which are corrupted in which case do a full system scan:

SFC \ SCANNOW

Another thing you can do is to set the variables on your own but you would have to do all of them:

At an elevated command prompt:

SET HOMEPATH=\USERS\MMM

.
.
.
SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM

and then logoff then log back on (do not reboot just logoff).

Did you have a user named temp at one time on your computer? If not then check to see if there is a C:\users\temp folder and if so delete it.

mrl325i

SFC /SCANFILE=c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINLOGON.EXE

said "windows resourse protection did not find any integrity violations.

Running scannow now.

mrl325i

After scannow it says:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

Now what?

frank200

Sometime between logging in and preparation of desktop your are being hijacked and the username is being changed to temp. Since a temp folder doesn't exist it is assuming you are a new user and hence it prepares a new desktop and new user defaults just as it would for a new user.

Now we checked for corruption in the system with SFC so the only other thing possible from this section of the forum would be to disable your startup items in case a rogue process has attached itself.

Type MSCONFIG in the search area of the start menu. It will appear at the top. Click it. Then click the startup tab. Click disable all. Then reboot.

Of course you know that arepair or clean install of Vista is always an option.

mrl325i

Thanks again, Frank.

I am attempting to delete the directory users/temp (there is more than one, all dated from the day this started) but it hangs. How can I do it from the command prompt?

I have restarted the pc after disabling the startup files but still have to delete the corrupt (I think) temp files.

mrl325i

How do I do this?

frank200

Here is a way to get your desktop back:

Open an elevated command prompt

Right click the tak bar and select task manager

Terminate the process explorer.exe

At a command prompt type

SET USERPROFILE=C:\USERS\MMM

Then type

EXPLORER.EXE