re: Can't boot to desktop Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 10:13 am Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum Posted by Luthien (15 messages posted) I did the progman.exe line because someone on another computer help site was trying to repair the registry.Only thing that did was give me the error message:SUREGCreateKey failed! Before program manager all I could do was get to a gray screen safe mode that wouldn't go anywhere.Nowhere at all. When I first boot up now I get this error: Registry file not found.Registry services may be unavailable this session.XMS cache problem. I couldn't find setup.exe in either of the places you told me to look.Thats all I can think of for now.Thanks for the help. On Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 4:26 am, Jack Gulley wrote: > "Program Manager"? > Someone has modified the WIN.ini file to start up the Widows 3.1 Program Manager >in order to do basic error recovery? Sounds bad. Without a Startup Diskette or bootable >CD, you really have a problem. The uneraser program has not told you much useful. >You can use Program Manager to edit the WIN.ini file to get rid of Program Manager >(Progman.exe), but then you might not be able to boot the system at all. > First suggestion is to see if you can find a Windows ME system to make a Windows >ME startup diskette on it. Go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk >tab. (Never use Windows 98/ME without one somewhere.) > Next on the system, use Program manager to get into EDIT or Notepad or a boot >diskette to get into DOS EDIT and look at the C:\Windows\SYSTEM.DAT file and do a >find on "ProductKey". Following it will the the 25 character product key code for >your copy of Windows ME. You will need this code if you do not have it. Write it >down carefully. zero and "O" look a lot alike. Also check the back of the system >for a Windows sticker with this code on it, there should be one somewhere. > At this point, unless you have someone with a lot of experience at doing this >type of recovery, your only choice is to try a reinstall of Windows ME over the top >of itself and hope that it clears up enough problems that you can boot the system >into Safe Mode. > It would be best if you could start the reinstall after booting from a Startup >diskette, but Program Manager might just work OK. > Go to the C:\Windows\Options\Install folder and locate the SETUP.EXE file. >If not there, check in the C:\Windows\Options\CABS folder. (Don't look in any other >folders for it as it will not be the one you are looking for.) If you can start this >SETUP program, you should be able to reload Windows ME over the top of itself. It >will ask you for the "ProductKey" code information. This may also be on a sticker >on the back of the system, so look there also. > When it asks you what folder to install to, make sure you indicate C:\Windows >and not default to C:\Windows.000. This should install Windows ME and any of its >programs that are missing or corrupted, and get the system booting. > It will not remove any of your programs and data. Nor will it remove any virus >or Spyware/Adware, so you will still have to deal with these. It will also clear >any of the Widows Updates and set IE back to v5.5, so you will have to download and >install all of them again. You will need to do a REPAIR of IE. (see: >border="0">page before doing the Windows Updates. > The only thing I don't know about, is if it will remove the change to WIN.INI >that is starting Program Manager. Usually this is done with a RUN=progman.exe >statement in the WIN.ini file. (Just remove it and save. Make sure there is still >a RUN= statement there.) If you can make a Windows ME startup diskette, then >you might be able to use it to remove this first and see how for you can get booting >the system as it is. Then use the startup diskette to run the SETUP.exe program. Written in response to: re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 4:26 am) Responses to this message: re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Sunday, January 9, 2005 at 11:21 am) All messages in this thread [show all] Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Sat, Jan 8, 2005, 3:45 pm) re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Sun, Jan 9, 2005, 4:26 am) re: Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Sun, Jan 9, 2005, 10:13 am) re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Sun, Jan 9, 2005, 11:21 am) re: Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Sun, Jan 9, 2005, 6:24 pm) re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Sun, Jan 9, 2005, 6:47 pm) re: Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Tue, Jan 11, 2005, 9:00 pm) re: Can't boot to desktop (Jack Gulley: Wed, Jan 12, 2005, 5:46 am) re: Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Fri, Jan 14, 2005, 5:41 pm) re: Can't boot to desktop (Luthien: Fri, Jan 14, 2005, 10:03 pm) Reply or follow-up to this message Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Me Discussion Forum