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[demon]

I made a thread about this a couple months ago or so, but no one could help. Now it's really starting to piss me off. I'll just copy my post from another board that's even less helpful than this one ...

I have XP Home with I'm pretty sure the latest updates and whatnot. A couple weeks ago I did two things: updated WMP, and updated DirectX to the latest version available at Microsoft's site. Right after that, all of a sudden my desktop got all funky and has gotte progressively more screwed up. First of all, I've had this on the left side of my desktop ever since then:

http://img121.exs.cx/img121/9531/desktop3fh.jpg

It seems to cover up the left side of the wallpaper, instead of squishing it or resizing it or pushing it to the right or something. Icon placement seems to be screwed up as well. Icons can't be placed on the bottom row or so of the screen (as you can see), and worse off, not matter what icon setting I have my desktop at (align to grid, etc), I cannot move them atl all, and if I create a new one it will usually be placed unaligned to the grid even when the rest of the icons are (even if I don't have "align to grid" checked).

What else....lately, I haven't been able to view images on my desktop. I'll click on one, the image viewer will come up, and just say "No preview available".

WTF?

And I've tried all the typical things you would attempt to fix this....none of it does anything.


Oh, and I also updated my videocard drives (ATI Radeon 9800) to the latest drivers at the same time.

As for winver: Version 5.1 (Build 2600 xpsp2.030422-1633 : Service Pack 1)

DirectX version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

 

[Jill Sandwich]

 

[superegular]

hmm.. it looks like explorer is being viewed as a folder or something, only on your desktop. really weird, never seen that before.

have you tried using system restore to roll back to a date before you performed the upgrades to wmp/directx? it will usually automatically create a restore point every day or so, as long as you leave your system on.

 

[fausty]

Easy - www.apple.com/switch

Heh.

Actually, the same thing happened to me... I uninstalled some crappy software, reset the computer, and the results were very similar to yours. I eventually just wiped my hd and installed windows from scratch, which probably wasn't a bad idea anyways.

Sorry I couldn't be more of a help, but if you can still back up your stuff and you've got a windows xp cd around, this is an excellent excuse to clean everything up...

 

[demon]

demon am cry.

Reformatting is such a fucking pain, and I don't know much about system restore....will I lose everything I've done since then?

 

[olimario]

Just format the damn thing.
I'll bet you have way more shit than I ever did and formatting was the best thing that I ever did to my PC.

Spend a couple hours backing up, format for the next hour, and be done with it. You'll be happier.

 

[fausty]

Just format the damn thing.
I'll bet you have way more shit than I ever did and formatting was the best thing that I ever did to my PC.

Spend a couple hours backing up, format for the next hour, and be done with it. You'll be happier.

This man speaks the truth. Plus, installing stuff again is sorta fun, it's almost like you just got a new system. Also, the computer will work again, which in itself is a good thing.

 

[Macam]

Windows sorely needs an Archive & Install option.

 

[tedtropy]

Make two partitions. A small one for your OS and apps and partition the rest of your drive for your data (mp3s, documents, 'recreational' graphics, etc.). I'd also keep the swap file on that partition. That way, whenever you want to format your system, you just nuke that OS partition and don't have to dick around with backing up data. It's all there whenever you've reinstalled the OS. It's a practice I've used with great success for many years now.

 

[RobotChant]

demon am cry.

Reformatting is such a fucking pain, and I don't know much about system restore....will I lose everything I've done since then?

If you haven’t tried system restore yet, that might be your best option other than reformatting. You shouldn't lose any files currently on the drive (IIRC), but some deleted files do re-appear. You might have to re-install some of the updates because of the settings reverting back.