Good Day beachboyvta-ga,
Thank you for the questions.
It sounds like your programs have either changed location on your hard
drive, or have been uninstalled.
It is possible, that the folder/directory in which the programs are
has been renamed. Be default, most programs will be put into
c:/program files/appname.
If for what ever reason "program files" has been renamed to something
else, none of the links to the programs inside this folder will work
anymore. If the folder name of a program inside "program files" has
been renamed, only that one application will have incorrect icons and
links. Renaming the folders back to the original names will fix the
problem, and the correct icons will be displayed again.
Most programs store an icon inside the executable file. When the
executable file is not where windows was originally told it is
(because for example part of the path has been renamed), or is simply
gone, Windows can no longer extract the icon from the executable, thus
displaying a "generic icon", and being unable to run the program when
the icon is clicked.
In most cases, these problems are the result of some files having been
deleted. Seldom does it happen that someone would go and just rename
a directory. Because of this, reinstalling the program which is not
functioning anymore would be the quickest, easiest, and the only 100%
proof solution.
While it is possible to manually find the files for the applications,
I would not recommend this option because of the complicity, but
please ask for details if you wish to try this option first.
After installing the software, the correct icons will be back in their
original place. Through installing, most software will often find if
there was a previous installion of itself. You might get a prompt to
repair the old installation, or simply reinstalling over the previous
install... If available, try the repair option first. If it works,
great. If not, go back, and try actually installing the program
instead of running the repair option.
You would have to repeat the process for any software which is
experiencing the same problems.
The nice thing is that all your documents that you created would still
be there after re-installation. The files you created in MS Office
are NOT part of the software that created them, thus a re-installation
will not touch those files. Where ever you left the documents, they
will be there.
If you do a reinstall, rather than a repair, some of your preferences
will get overwritten with the software defaults. Your recent files
menu will be empty, although the files will still be on the hard
drive. This is why I recommend using Repair first, if available. It
might preserve some of your preferences. If you don't have any custom
preferences, simply reinstalling will probably be the easiest method
to get you back up and running without any losses.
To reinstall or repair, put in the software CD (ms office in this
case) into the CD-ROM, and the repair/installation wizard should start
up automatically. If it does not, double click on the "My Computer"
icon on the desktop, and than the CD-ROM icon. Look for a file that
is called "setup", install", or anything like that, and double click
it to start the install.
Hope this sheds some light as to what has been happening with your
computer. Please ask for a clarification if anything doesn't make
sense, or if you require more details on anything.
Regards,
slawek-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
beachboyvta-ga
on
05 May 2003 12:08 PDT
c:\program files and all its subfolders are still there.
This is affecting much of my software, not just a specific
application. And, I can run all of them by clicking on Start and Run,
and typing in the program name, such as iexplore, winword, outlook,
etc. Could send you a pic of my desktop to help you understand more,
but it appears on the surface that your answer is headed in the wrong
direction.
Thanks,
Paul
paulfour@earthlink.net
|
Clarification of Answer by
slawek-ga
on
05 May 2003 13:08 PDT
Hello,
Before we go on, I would recommend checking for viruses if you did not
already do so. You may find a free virus checker at www.grisoft.com.
If you already have a virus checker and have run it, please make sure
it is the most recent version. New viruses come out almost every day,
so a month old virus database might be of no help.
Once you have done that, we will know if a virus is causing the
changes.
Some of the applications in windows are installed in "the pathway".
Any application in the pathway does not require to have the full
pathway listed in the link. When you enter iexplore, windows will
automatically look for such a file in all the directories which are
listed in the pathway. This might explain why the files work when you
try running them.
To help me narrow down the problem, assuming there is no virus
present, please do the following:
Right click on the generic icon that coresponds to MSWord, and go to
properties. You can either forward a screen shot, or simply copy the
information inside the properties of that icon. Once I know where it
leads, I might be able to tell if anything weird is going on in the
background on this level.
Now, use the windows find option to search for a file called
"msword.exe". The search results will provide us with the information
on the pathway to the actual file.
The first step will tell us what windows thinks that file name is, and
where it is located. The second step will tell us where the file
actually is. This will help us narrow down the problem, and fix it.
There might be some clues here that will help us fix everything.
Also, what happens when you click on MS Word? What is the exact
message you get?
Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
slawek-ga
|
Clarification of Answer by
slawek-ga
on
06 May 2003 08:16 PDT
Good Morning beachboyvta-ga,
At present, Google Answers does not have a place where files can be
uploaded. However, a free account with Yahoo will allow you to upload
the file. To get setup with Yahoo, go to
http://geocities.yahoo.com/home/ you will have to create a user
account if you already don't have one...
Looks like your Word icon link is in its original form, unmodified.
Did you try creating an icon, and see if the software starts okay?
Simply right click anywhere on an empty part of the desktop and select
New -> Shortcut
Inside the dialog box that pops up, click on browse, and browse over
to
C:\program files\microsoft office\office10... inside that folder,
select winword.exe, click Next. Enter Word in the following dialog
box, and click Finish. Now you should have a Word icon on your
desktop. See if it works.
From what you told me, it sounds as if the icon will work, and there
are no parts of the software that are missing.
I am not sure how you would like me to help you from here:
- We can go about recreating all the icons manually, in the same
manner as described above. I don't know how many icons would require
this process to take place, so I don't know if that is feasible.
- We can try a restore point if available. A restore point saves
everything, and backs it up into a file. You might be able to revert
to an older setup, where the icons are okay (this is assuming that all
the files for the icons are really there, and just the links have been
broken for an unknown reason).
Restoring to previous state is not for the faint of heart, and
requires a little bit of a geek factor :). Instructions on how to go
about completing a restoration can be found at:
Web Site: How to restore Windows XP to a previous state.
URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/managing/restore.asp
If system restore is on, you will see a few dates to which you can
take your computer back to. Please keep in mind that any programs you
installed since the restoration point will not be available from the
desktop... the files will be there, but the links will be gone. Also,
any Windows preferences you have set since the restoration point will
be set back to the old values.
- The last option I can think of would be to reinstall the software
that had its links corrupted.
I can't think of a single thing that would just cause your icons to
malfunction like this... Maybe, and only maybe, seeing the desktop
with the icons would give me some sort of clue... although I must
admit that looking at a static screen shot will provide only very
limited information, and chances are that if there was enough clues in
that one screen shot to figure out the whole puzzle, it would be so
obvious that you would have known by now what caused the problem.
Please let me know if I can help walk you through anything I described
above. I will work with you as long as it takes, and do what I can
from my remote location, to help you get things back to normal.
Once again, thanks for your patience.
Regards,
slawek-ga
|
