[Gary500]

When I boot my other computer up, after it loads up it says

"STOP:cOOOO135 {unable to locate component} This application has failed to start because user32.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

How can re-install user32.dll? Please, I don't know that much about computers. Can you help me? My other computer is Windows XP.

[TheOutcaste]

Welcome to TSG!

Do you have the Windows XP CD?
If so, you can boot into the Recovery Console and copy the file from the CD.

Note that if you have a SATA hard Drive, the XP CD may not be able to detect your hard drive, so this won't work. In that case, you'll need either the SATA driver on a floppy disk, or an XP disk with the SATA driver slipstreamed in.
Other options are using a Live CD or connecting the hard drive to a different PC to copy the file.

Boot from the CD and Press R at the first screen to use the Recovery Console
The Windows installations will be displayed, usually just C:\Windows
If you have more than one be sure to select the correct one
You'll be asked for the Administrator password. Type in the password, or just hit enter if there is no password

This should leave you at a C:\Windows prompt.
Type the following:
map
-- Note the drive letter of the CDROM drive and use it where I've used D below (in red)
Type the following:
cd system32
copy D:\i386\user32.dll
Remove the CD, then type exit

HTH

Jerry

[Gary500]

Thank you. But where do you get the CD?

[TheOutcaste]

If the PC shipped from the manufacturer with XP installed, they may have given you an OS CD, or a Recovery CD; some Recovery CDs have an option to boot to the Recovery Console. The path to the i386 folder may be different though, or may not exist at all.

Most any XP CD can be used to get to the Recovery Console, but to copy files it's best to use a CD that has the same Service Pack as is installed on the PC.

If you don't have an XP CD, you can download an ISO image from my website and burn that to a CD. Make sure you burn that as an ISO file, you can't just copy the file onto a CD. If you need an ISO burner, this free one is one I've found useful.
These images do not have any SATA drivers included so they may not work if your PC has a SATA hard drive. They also don't include the user32.dll file, but you might be able to copy it from the dllcache folder on your PC.

The command for that, once you are in the Recovery Console and have switched to the system32 folder, would be
copy c:\windows\system32\dllcache\user32.dll

If you get a file not found error, then the file was deleted from there as well. In which case you'll need to find the XP CD.

HTH

Jerry

[Gary500]

Wow, thanks a lot. ^_^

[Gary500]

Which one of the service packs should I use? I have professional.

[Gary500]

Anyone?

[TheOutcaste]

If you aren't sure what service pack you have installed on your system, I would suggest using a Service Pack 2 disk. As you won't be copying the file from this disk, a version mismatch won't be a problem.

HTH

Jerry

[DSW75]

Hello to anyone who can help me out. I followed the instructions above (as I have the exact same problem with the USER32.DLL being missing) but when I go to copy from the SP2 XP disc it gives me the message:
The system cannot find the file specified.

I know D is my CD drive so don't know why this isn't showing up. I urgently need to get back up and running so am willing to donate to anyone who can help me resolve this rapidly. Thanks!

DSW

[TheOutcaste]

It's better to start your own thread and include a link back to the one similar to yours. Helps avoid confusion.

It could be the file on your CD is compressed, so it's named user32.dl_ (I've got one disk with it one way and one with it the other).
So use this command instead of the copy command:
expand d:\i386\user32.dl_ c:\windows\system32\user32.dll

The cd system32 command is not needed either as we are specifying the destination.

HTH

Jerry