Desktop Disappearing

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Sierra - 13 Feb 2004 21:21 GMT

On startup, my desktop wallpaper appears. After all the
shortcuts are dropped on my desktop a grey window appears
on the desktop stating "windows is updating the following
items". There is no list of updates, it just wipes away my
desktop wallpaper. If I close all programs and log in
again, the same thing happens. I've had this computer for
atleast five years and this is the first time this has
happened. Any idea what's happening and how I can fix it?
Any help would be appreciated.

Ted

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glee - 14 Feb 2004 03:26 GMT

Can you boot into Safe Mode?

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Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

> On startup, my desktop wallpaper appears. After all the
> shortcuts are dropped on my desktop a grey window appears
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Ted

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anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com - 14 Feb 2004 20:30 GMT

Yes, I can boot in safe mode. What should I look for when
I'm in safe mode?

Ted.

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Ben Myers - 14 Feb 2004 05:19 GMT

Start regedit, expand and highlight the following key and look
in the right window for "mdac_runonce". If you find it, delete
it.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Ben

> On startup, my desktop wallpaper appears. After all the
> shortcuts are dropped on my desktop a grey window appears
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Ted

Reply to this Message

anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com - 14 Feb 2004 20:42 GMT

Thanks Ben,

I found the file exactly where you said it was.
My next question is how did it get there and what was it
for? Did it come from a Win'95 service pack that I
downloaded from Microsoft? I'm just curious.

My startup is back to normal now.

Regarding the regedit, I deleted some programs a long
time ago, not realizing they were registered. Now when I
open add/remove programs, I still see these programs that
are no longer on my system. Can I find these in regedit
and manual delete them? If so, under which key would I
find them?

Thanks again, Ted.

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Ben Myers - 15 Feb 2004 18:30 GMT

> Thanks Ben,
>
> I found the file exactly where you said it was.
> My next question is how did it get there and what was it
> for? Did it come from a Win'95 service pack that I
> downloaded from Microsoft? I'm just curious.

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q268062

> My startup is back to normal now.
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> and manual delete them? If so, under which key would I
> find them?

The registry key involved is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

Microsoft has a utility called "TweakUI" which can handle this
as well. No official support on it from Microsoft, however.
If you want to try it, download and run the following, then find
the "tweakui.inf" file, right-click and select "Install".

http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/Install/1.0/WinMe/EN-US/Tweakui.exe

Ben

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