[BiffEP]

Running XP Pro - Pentium4 dual core - 3.00GHz - 3gb ram. Been running this for years without any problems what so ever.
10 days ago turned on unit and half my icons were missing and most things in the all programs menu were missing, including defrag, disk cleanup and system info in accessories.
Ran virus scan - nothing. Did system restore to day before event and every thing returned but the next time I started up they were gone again. Did restore to about a month before but the same result. Programs are still on hard drive and I can reinstall them but every time I turn on computer it's a surprise. One time everythings there and the next time somethings missing.
Have to reinstall Office Pro every time I start computer.

Funny thing - when unit is on and things installed it runs great - Until the next startup.
Suppose I could leave it running all the time??

Any ideas on what to look for?

[Tufenuf]

BiffEP, The 2 links below may be of some help.

Click Start>Run then copy & paste or type in:

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Click OK

Restart your computer.

Note that the spacing is important.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/AllPrograms.htm

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Accessories.htm

Tufenuf

[BiffEP]

Thanks for the reply:

regsvr32 / i shell32.dll would not run.

Did go into regedit and all the default settings are the same as listed on the usershellfolders page. Was able to reinstall accessories with AccRestore download but it vanished again with a restart.
BiffEP

[BiffEP]

My mistake. I did get the regsvr32 command to run. Bad spacing on my part.
See what happens.

BiffEP

[BiffEP]

11/21

System has started for the last three days with one exception.

For some reason I have to reinstall Office XP Pro with every start ?????

Don't know why?

[BiffEP]

11/23

I uninstalled XP Office Pro and reinstalled it. Computer starts fine now but office ( even though it,s in the all programs menu) does not run. I have to install software each time I startup. Windows update just downloaded Service Pack 3 for XP Office. I'll see if it works the next time I startup.

Bob Moore

[BiffEP]

I think problem may be solved. Think Microsoft XP Office may have become corrupted and caused all the problems. Removed it entirely and everything has been going smoothly. Hope it continues.

BiffEP