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help Center & System Restore .Dlls Vanish in ME


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Hi, I'm using CC Slim on my XP Pro & XP Home machines with NO problems using basically MILD settings (nothing under advanced) and love & promote the product on several forums. :D

 

I was recently given a Win ME Compaq machine (model 5008CA w/ 128 RAM, 40GB HD,AMD Duron)which I've been asked to clean up so it can be given to someone's adult daughter w/kids.

I'm un-familiar with this OS (but had 98SE) but all seemed to be going well as I used AdawareSE & Spybot & AVG to get rid of the baddies (8 data miners/10 down load Trojans, 8 redirected home & 10 search pages). :angry: Previously had CWS but all clean now.

Then I started in on deleting various programs that were related to the office it came from. Still OK but have not (as of yet) HJT'd the various Compaq re-directs & internet keyboard functions (probably will) but have locked home (blank) & search (Google) pages.

Of course, I set & ran CCleaner Slim (un checking 'Temp files older than 48 hrs' for 1ST pass) and it removed 267 Megabytes of crap! The progressing analyzing bar had to make 10+ full width runs!! :o Cowabunga!! :D

Anyway, after all this, all seemed good so I decided(after re-booting) to create some System Restore points for safety. I had previously set a few along the way after major milestones reached. ;)

Unfortunately, when I went to Help Center(OK) and clicked link there for "Use System Restore", I got a notice saying: System Restore can't run until you've restarted your computer . (?)!! OK, did that, repeatedly (4 or 5 times) but same result. In end stage, Help Center wouldn't activate saying : "Required Dll file HCappres.dll NOT FOUND".. I later tried to run RESTORE manually from System Info and got same restart bit. Then tried to use run>CMD> restrui.exe (sys restore exe) and replied: restrui.exe NOT FOUND. V.Weird!

I did get some new restore points by running "search all files & folders"> containing the words: System Restore which led me to Help Center.Exe /& restrui.exe with 3 copies of each in 1)system 2)options/cabs/ 3)PC health. By double clicking on Health Center in Options/ Cabs I was able to launch it & system restore also. Whew!

Next day all seemed proper re these, created a desktop icon directly to System Restore which worked OK and after adding a few more things(Mozilla_13 & Sun Java 1.4.2_11 ++) , rechecked : Temp...older than 24 hrs box and ran CC. Then shut down computer.

On next start, I was right back to the can't find restrui.exe & can't find HCappres.dll again!! Did the whole bit again several times ,and on each occasion running CC seemed to activate the problem again.

 

These are the original mild settings used on XPs and at first on ME.:

Under IE: All checked EXCEPT auto complete form.

under Explorer: ONLY recent documents & search assistant auto complete checked

Under System: ALL checked EXCEPT Win Log Files & Old Prefetch data ('though I believe I had that checked on 1ST pass).

Under Advanced: NONE checked

APPLICATIONS: various incl. Adobe,Sun Java, ALL players checked, & AVG.

Under Windows: ONLY MS Paint checked.

 

Is it possible that ME stores some of it's settings, sys files or links to them, or restore or CheckDisk Info in a weird place that is being cleaned by CC? If so which? Would un checking those solve problem?

Note: have run both Normal & Through defrags & Error repair/checkdisk , the latter of which seemed to put all back to functioning. Have since created several restore points but can't use them when problem is apparent BUT once I reach system restore, restoring to one of the "Good" points does set all back to working.

 

I'm really a 3/4 blind tinkerer leading the totally blind (intended final recipient) ! Help!!

Thanks in Advance for consideration & advice offered! :rolleyes::D

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In further researching problem, via Google, I came across several references to McAfee Safe & Sound (a back-up utility) and Restore Points NOT BEING CREATED while this program functional (versions b-4 4.00.1034.0)

on Win ME & I have in fact seen this program listed in this computer, despite un-installing McAfee AV program from program list. Thought this might have a bearing on situation. "Not Found" message for Sys Restore would certainly prevent restore points being created. <_<:blink:

The counter intuitive part is that I have been able to create several restore points, which are still there and accessible , if I haven't run CCleaner despite not accessing or altering settings in S & S .

Apparently S & S sets aside a protected area for it's backups and perhaps restore points go in there and won't be found by link in Health Center. Not sure how this connects w/ "need to restart computer" or "Dll not found".

Hope this advances ideas. I am going to see what version it has.Thanks, again! :D

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In all honesty an old computer that has accumulated allot of malware, errors, etc., and since it is after all WinMe should really be formatted and have the OS reinstalled from scratch, it's a hell of allot faster and easier than trying to cleanup everything which in reality may not even be possible, and/or things could be so broken that it would be too time consuming to fix it all.

 

Edit:

According to a few posts on this forum, supposedly System Restore on WinMe was broken from the get go.

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Thanks for the eminently sound advice to re-format. You, of course, are absolutely correct! ME has been MS's MOST unstable product since day one. One half is fat32 the other half is ntfs type stuff so it's no wonder it has schizoid problems in the functionality department! Unfortunately ,I don't have a full retail version to re-install with, only Compaq's "customized" restore disk which would probably re-install a bunch of problems

(spyware, tracking, re-directs etc). I hesitate to do this since it's OEM, out of warranty & MS is killing support so I may not be able to re-obtain updates/hot fixes, drivers etc.

I actually have installable corporate volume keyed XPPro (my corporation) I could install but would have to bring up to 512RAM (from 128) for good functionality.

The Safe & Sound bit is very weird.Couldn't get even a Version # off it but will try Belarc Advisor. I have only an S&S icon in my computer, there is no registered un-installer, it permanently marked as Hidden couldn't change to Archive and any action I tried on it auto launched attempted IM connection to head office of the company it came from, or opened into the partitioned back-up. Only action available seems to be "delete" but I think that maybe only the icon not the program (not in program list) and I fear I wouldn't be able to recover the partition space (10% of HD). Again would mean format.

Still haven't figured how CCleaner may mix in here or perhaps it's only co-incidence that the cleaning & problem show up together (so far), Thanks again for sensible advice. If I re-format, I'll go XP for better stability. :D

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:( oh, Boy!! Belarc Advisor did give what I sought: Safe & Sound Version 1.00 updated to Version2.00!!

I'm fairly sure this is PART of the problem. I further noticed in the PC Health folder which seems to have some connections to Health Center & even possibly System Restore, a folder labeled TEMP (empty of course after CC) in it, so it does seem possible some part of this system is residing in Temp. :o

I know I can exempt certain cookies from cleaning, is there a way I could exempt 1 temp file??

Unfortunately it has no specific label only "temp" so I fear not. Hmmmm..XP looking better all the time! :rolleyes:

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