Desktop Icons Access Denied

I'm running Windows98 on an HP Pavillion computer. A few
days ago while watching a video clip in RealPlayer my
computer crashed. When my computer rebooted the icons on
my desktop were now followed by the extesion .lnk. When I
would double click on the icons with the left mouse
button I would get the message "access to the specified
device, path, or file is denied". Usually I would access
desktop icons by using the right mouse button and
choosing "open". However, "open" is not even listed when
I right-click. The only way to open progams is to go to
the start menu and choose "run". I was told there might
be a problem in the registry with the .lnk file. When I
checked the registry where it should be, it didn't exist.
I found a .Reg fix from a website, imported it to the
registry. The desktop icons no longer are followed
by .lnk, but I still can't access them. I cannot access
my computer or the control panel. Also, I cannot access
my e-mail through outlook express. I would have
reinstalled windows 98 but I do not have a windows98 disk
or a recovery disk from Hp.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

" wrote
in message ...
I'm running Windows98 on an HP Pavillion computer. A few
days ago while watching a video clip in RealPlayer my
computer crashed. When my computer rebooted the icons on
my desktop were now followed by the extesion .lnk. When I
would double click on the icons with the left mouse
button I would get the message "access to the specified
device, path, or file is denied". Usually I would access
desktop icons by using the right mouse button and
choosing "open". However, "open" is not even listed when
I right-click. The only way to open progams is to go to
the start menu and choose "run". I was told there might
be a problem in the registry with the .lnk file. When I
checked the registry where it should be, it didn't exist.
I found a .Reg fix from a website, imported it to the
registry. The desktop icons no longer are followed
by .lnk, but I still can't access them. I cannot access
my computer or the control panel. Also, I cannot access
my e-mail through outlook express. I would have
reinstalled windows 98 but I do not have a windows98 disk
or a recovery disk from Hp.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

You could try a Registry Restore to the morning the problem happened.
Any programs installed after that time may not work.
Boot to "command prompt only" from the 'startup menu'.
Ususally you can get there by holding down the ctrl or F8 key
during bootup (maybe you will have to keep tapping it if you get an
error).
At the C:\ prompt, type scanreg /restore and press Enter.
Follow the directions.

It may be helpful to take these two Badour repair ".reg" files.
Unzip them & click the ".reg" inside. This will merge the fix into your
Registry.
http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/reg_files.html

http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/asset...s/ExeAssoc.zip
Repair .Exe Association. Sets the default association for .exe files.

http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/assets/images/LnkW98.zip
Link Association (Shortcut) Repair. W95 with IE4 and W98.


By default, when a ".reg" is clicked, it will Merge into the Registry.
To alter the default behavior: "START, Settings, Folder Options, File
Types tab". Scroll to & click "Registration Entries", click the "Edit"
button, select "edit" in the window & click the "Set Default" button.
Now, when you click a ".reg" file, it will open in Notepad for
examination. To merge it into the Registry, R-Clk it & select "Merge".


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

" wrote in
message ...
| I'm running Windows98 on an HP Pavillion computer. A few
| days ago while watching a video clip in RealPlayer my
| computer crashed. When my computer rebooted the icons on
| my desktop were now followed by the extesion .lnk. When I
| would double click on the icons with the left mouse
| button I would get the message "access to the specified
| device, path, or file is denied". Usually I would access
| desktop icons by using the right mouse button and
| choosing "open". However, "open" is not even listed when
| I right-click. The only way to open progams is to go to
| the start menu and choose "run". I was told there might
| be a problem in the registry with the .lnk file. When I
| checked the registry where it should be, it didn't exist.
| I found a .Reg fix from a website, imported it to the
| registry. The desktop icons no longer are followed
| by .lnk, but I still can't access them. I cannot access
| my computer or the control panel. Also, I cannot access
| my e-mail through outlook express. I would have
| reinstalled windows 98 but I do not have a windows98 disk
| or a recovery disk from Hp.
| Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

The fact that you cannot access My Computer or Control Panel is highly indicative of
a hard-to-remove spyware/adware installed on the system. If the .reg file fixes PCR
mentioned do not help, you will have to download and install some software to locate
and remove it. Since My Computer (and probably also Windows Explorer) is not
working, you will probably have to install and run them through the StartRun
dialog. They are listed below:

Update your anti-virus app and then run a full-system virus scan.

Use CWShredder, the CoolWeb removal tool, available he
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...CWShredder.exe
http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.zip
Close all browser windows and open apps, run CWShredder and click the Fix button.

In addition, install Ad-Aware personal free edition, start it, click its 'Check for
Updates' link in the app to install updates, then use it to scan your system, and
remove what it finds.
Ad-Awa
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

Install, update and run SpyBot Search & Destroy, scan your system, and then remove
the items in RED only.
SpyBot S&D:
http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=download

Download, unzip, and run Hijack This from one of these locations:
http://computercops.biz/downloads-cat-14.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...HijackThis.exe
Unzip to a folder other than your Desktop or the Temp folder, doubleclick
HijackThis.exe, and hit "Scan".

When the scan is finished, the "Scan" button will change into a "Save Log"
button.
Press that, save the log somewhere you can find it (Desktop, My Documents, or
similar).
Most of what it lists will be harmless or even required, so do NOT fix anything yet.

Copy the log files and paste them into a new post at this forum:
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=30

In your post, please state your problem clearly and what you've done so far to fix
it.

The folks there will tell you what to remove.

See the "housekeeping" you should complete before you post your log:
http://aumha.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4075

A tutorial for using Hijack This is located he
http://tomcoyote.com/hjt/
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP W95/98 Systems
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


" wrote in message
...
I'm running Windows98 on an HP Pavillion computer. A few
days ago while watching a video clip in RealPlayer my
computer crashed. When my computer rebooted the icons on
my desktop were now followed by the extesion .lnk. When I
would double click on the icons with the left mouse
button I would get the message "access to the specified
device, path, or file is denied". Usually I would access
desktop icons by using the right mouse button and
choosing "open". However, "open" is not even listed when
I right-click. The only way to open progams is to go to
the start menu and choose "run". I was told there might
be a problem in the registry with the .lnk file. When I
checked the registry where it should be, it didn't exist.
I found a .Reg fix from a website, imported it to the
registry. The desktop icons no longer are followed
by .lnk, but I still can't access them. I cannot access
my computer or the control panel. Also, I cannot access
my e-mail through outlook express. I would have
reinstalled windows 98 but I do not have a windows98 disk
or a recovery disk from Hp.
Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.