PC is a well-specced XP Pro that runs fine, except for the following:

The Programs folder on the Start Menu is empty, even though there are
program folders & shortcusts in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start
Menu\Programs\ & C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Start Menu\Programs\

Right-clcik the Task Bar, select Properties. Click the Start Menu tab, click
Classic Start Menu & click Customise - The Advanced Start Menu Options box
is empty.

Similarly, in My Computer go to Tools | Folder Options | View and there are
no options in Advanced Settings

When I first looked at the PC it had a porno dialler on it and a few of the
usual spyware suspects, which I removed with AdAware & Spybot S&D. A virus
scan reveales nothing. All service packs are up to date. System Restore was
disabled. A repair of XP doesn't fix it. A new user in a new profile has the
same issues.

Anyone else seen this & got a fix? I could reinstall from scratch, but would
really like to know what's happened to this box.

---

Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 08 Dec 2003 09:09 PST

Can you describe what you did or what happened before the problem
started? Did someone else use your computer before you did? Since you
mentioned a porno dialer, when you or someone else surfed a porn site,
that site automatically installed a dialer, whether you liked it or
not. My suspect is that installation of the dialer did something to
your machine, or if someone else did use your machine, that person may
have done something.

---

Clarification of Question by solutionsho-ga on 08 Dec 2003 10:55 PST

To Clarify, I wish I knew what happened. Its not my machine and all
alse works OK. The son of the owner most likely went looking for
girlie sites.
I agree with you that the dialer may have done something but what it
did is what I want to rememdy. There are no other symptoms.

Thanks

Hi,

Can you please try the following registry files:

Reset start menu
http://membres.lycos.fr/dbky/solutionsho/nodesktop.reg

If that doesn't work then:

Enable start menu
http://membres.lycos.fr/dbky/solutionsho/startmenuenable.reg

Thanks.
endo

WINDOWS SCAN sfc /scannow

sfc /scannow     Enter in the RUN to scan and replace some corrupted files.

It needs to be exact.  (note the space between the c and the forward slash
Have you XP Cd Ready to insert if  prompted.


To run it without the CD, change the SourcePath ?


If you run regedit and look at the key: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup 

What does it say in the right pane for SourcePath ? 

You can try changing it to c:\ which may work for you if you have cab
files in the location c:\I386

To make the change you just double click the entry and modify it. You
can always change it back. But before you do this as I've mentioned
several times now, please verify that you have a c:\I386 folder and
that it looks fully stocked with cab files. Mine is almost 940 mb.

I mentioned earlier that Windows File Protection and SFC normally
restore from the system32\dllcache which is a hidden system file; you
must have both the options in Tools > Folder Options > View selected
to show them. When I first looked there it was nearly empty. After
using sfc /scannow a couple of times, it has almost 450 mb of files in
it. Windows repopulates this either from the CD or the Cab files on
the hard drive when sfc is run or Windows File Protection engages.

But if it never scans the c:\drive for the I386 folder, then it can't
find any source for the files.

The answer from lri41-ga  seems to have fixed it.
Many thanks for both answers as it was a tricky one.