Oh robyrob....

[Janice]

Will I ever stop bothering you? Probably not.
My computer is acting crazy. I was getting messages that I had trojans, etc. I was using AVG to detect viruses and AOL's free Spyware protection. I use AOL Version 8.0
I saw that if I upgraded to Version 9.0, AOL offered free McAfee virus protection and a fireall thing. I did upgrade. I hated Version 9, so I use Version 8, but I still use McAfee.
I have a Gateway. (ME 2000 I think). It's almost 4 years old. I feel like it still has more life to it if I could straighten things out myself. It's sluggish a lot.
I downloaded Firefox Mozilla. How do I know it's my browser as I still get IE popup messages?
Is there a way to clean up my computer? I forget where scan disc is, and last time I ran it, it went on forever.
I need a maintenance list. I don't want to pay for any computer virus protection programs because I do plan on buying a new computer which leads me to my next question. What kind of computer should I buy? My brother tells me I gotta get a Dell.
I don't want to pay for more than I need. All I do is go to a few websites and prepare documents or spreadsheets. I don't need all the bells and whistles. I have Comcast high-speed internet, but I'm keeping AOL because I've had it for 10 years, and I like it. I don't care who hates it. I like it. I tried to cancel because I pay so much for Comcast, but they gave me two free months and will now give it to me for $10 a month.
You feel like straightening this mess out? Gateway tech help is useless. The language barrier is like an SNL skit. It's like playing charades. It's nearly impossible to find someone who speaks English. This stuff is difficult enough for me without it being explained to me in another language. I've thought about hiring a computer geek in the area to fix things, but where do I find such a person? Certainly there must be someone local who does this for a living willing to come and make a quick $100.
Feel like making sense of this mess?

[vienna waits]

You should just put in the system recovery CDs and delete everything and start over. That's what I did with my 4 year old comp and it's fine now. Before, it was completly screwed up-- restarted on its own, never shut down properly, s.l.o.w., froze constantly, etc, etc.

[James"Thunder"Early]

Originally Posted by Idol Fanatic

You should just put in the system recovery CDs and delete everything and start over. That's what I did with my 4 year old comp and it's fine now. Before, it was completly screwed up-- restarted on its own, never shut down properly, s.l.o.w., froze constantly, etc, etc.

that probably is the best idea, because some stuff won't go away unless you wipe the disk clean.

[Janice]

Thanks guys, but I don't know how to do any of that.

Try to imagine the dumbest computer person that you know....I'm 10 times dumber than that person.

[PZelda]

Originally Posted by TheGoldenGirlsUS

Janice, all you should have to do would be a System Restore. Do you know how to do that? If not, I can write it out for you. No problem.

Uh, actually...a System Restore won't do much for her at this point. I'm with Idol Fanatic...it would be better to just wipe the computer out altogether and start from scratch.

[James"Thunder"Early]

Originally Posted by Janice

Thanks guys, but I don't know how to do any of that.

Try to imagine the dumbest computer person that you know....I'm 10 times dumber than that person.

First make sure you find what files you need to keep. Get the original Windows installation and put it in. restart your computer and tap f12 and select boot from CD, Windows gives instructions the rest of the way. it takes two-three hours tops to get everything up and running again.

[Chelsea]

Go to Start --> Settings--->Control Panel

Go to Add/Remove Programs.

Click Add/Remove Windows Components

There should either be a folder called Accessories, or Accessories and Utilities

Click that Folder...Remove any greyed-out or normal checkboxes you see...then Recheck the boxes. Click OK.

If you did not see Games in the Previous menu (Different Windows OS'es arrange things differently), scroll down to Games, and repeat.

[Chelsea]

I wonder: Is it the apps that are missing, or just the shortcuts

Go to Start - > Run
Type in mspaint

[Chelsea]

But is the PROGRAM still there? Did you type in mspaint from the Run box?

[Chelsea]

OK, before I go into showing you how to rebuild your shortcuts - what operating system are you using?

[Chelsea]

OK:

To rebuild all of your icons this way is a rather lengthy process (I could swear there's a faster way [roby?]), but, for now, this will at least get you paint and the games back:

First, paint:
Go to start---Run
Copy and Paste this:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs
---
Right Click, mouseover New, and click Folder.
Name it Accessories (assuming you've completely wiped that folder)
Now, let's go into the accessories folder.
We're going to rebuild Paint.
Click New-->Shortcut
For the first box that comes up, type in:
C:\Windows\System32\mspaint.exe
Name the Shortcut Paint.

Repeat this process for every Accessories Program you want back, but replace with those individual filenames. All are in the same c:\windows\system32\ folder.
Common ones for that would be notepad.exe (notepad) and calc.exe (Calculator).

From the Accessories Folder, Click the Back Icon.
Repeating the Same Process as Before, Create a Games Folder
Go into the Folder, and Create a New Shortcut.
In this example, we'll do solitaire.

In the box that comes up, type in C:\Windows\System32\sol.exe for the program location, and Solitaire as the Program Name.
Repeat, but replace sol.exe with:

Minesweeper: C:\Windows\system32\winmine.exe
Hearts: C:\Windows\system32\mshearts.exe
Freecell: c:\windows\system32\freecell.exe
Pinball: C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Pinball\PINBALL.EXE
Spider Solitaire: c:\windows\System32\spider.exe
And if you have the 5 Internet Games "Internet Spades, etc.", with the directory:
C:\Program Files\MSN Gaming Zone\Windows\
And the filenames of:
bckgzm.exe (internet backgammon)
chkrzm.exe (internet checkers)
hrtzzm.exe (internet hearts)
rvsezm.exe (internet reversi)
shvlzm.exe (internet spades)

And after all that, you should have all of the basics restored. The rest of your accessories programs are all in the \system32\ directory with the other stuff, it's just a matter of finding them and repeating the process

[Chelsea]

Where were they originally?

[Chelsea]

If I had known the folders were still there, coulda saved a couple of steps.

Drag Paint and The Games into their respective folders. Click but hold on their current location, then drag them to the their old location

[Chelsea]

Originally Posted by TheGoldenGirlsUS

Yes, the will drag! Yes! Finally.

Okay, do you have that link (like you did for Paint) so I can readd WordPad and Character Map?

OK, open each folder (The two on your desktop)
Click each icon. Now, DRAG that to each folder (Pause over the start menu, still holding the button down, to allow the menu to open...Take it up to Programs accessories, then place it there)

[Chelsea]

OK, so maybe everything's NOT in /System32/...It's been a while since I looked at what's where..

WordPad: C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe
Character Map: c:\windows\system32\charmap.exe