genegold Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 In My Computer, when I click on a hard drive (D or C), instead of showing a full directory of folders as it used to, I'm getting a DOS command popup window. In either case, the drive in DOS shows correctly as D or C, but up top in both cases it says "D:\WINDOWS]System32\command.exe." My CD-ROM drives and floppy drive show that same line up top, but with D:\WINDOWS> as the command line. I also have a separate desktop icon to open D drive, and the top there says "D Drive." This is recent behavior and a vague recollection suggests this may be the result of some utility that I installed, then uninstalled. In any event, I haven't found a Windows setting that will allow resetting to normal operation. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_P Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 If a Windows XP system I suggest finding a System Restore point prior to the utiltity install and restoring to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted May 30, 2005 Author Share Posted May 30, 2005 If a Windows XP system I suggest finding a System Restore point prior to the utiltity install and restoring to it.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> System Restore has never worked for me. Runs for awhile and then says it can't restore. Isn't there a more direct solution? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed_P Posted May 30, 2005 Share Posted May 30, 2005 System Restore has never worked for me. Runs for awhile and then says it can't restore. Isn't there a more direct solution?Of course. Restoring from your last backup. It sounds like you have more problems that just the Explorer window opening as DOS. Scary. Wish I had better advice to give you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 It almost sounds as if the associated action for folders has been changed somehow.In Control Panel, go to Folder Options>File Types tab. Scroll down a bit to "Folder" (not File Folder) and click on it once to highlight it. Now click the "Advanced" button. What is in the "Actions" area? There should only be 'open' and 'explore'. Let me know if there's something different there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epp_b Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 What happens when you do this...?Start > Run > Type "<system drive>:\winnt\explorer.exe d:" (of course without quotes, and with replacing <system drive> with whatever drive windows is installed on) > Click "OK" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 It almost sounds as if the associated action for folders has been changed somehow.In Control Panel, go to Folder Options>File Types tab. Scroll down a bit to "Folder" (not File Folder) and click on it once to highlight it. Now click the "Advanced" button. What is in the "Actions" area? There should only be 'open' and 'explore'. Let me know if there's something different there.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> "PowerDesk" is also there. That's a Windows Explorer alternative I've been sometimes using for a year or so, while this problem is new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted May 31, 2005 Author Share Posted May 31, 2005 (edited) What happens when you do this...?Start > Run > Type "<system drive>:\winnt\explorer.exe d:" (of course without quotes, and with replacing <system drive> with whatever drive windows is installed on) > Click "OK"<{POST_SNAPBACK}> It worked fine (changing winnt to windows), just like before. Now, I have to turn that into a shortcut/icon on my desktop, which for the life of me I can't remember how I did a couple of years ago. And also deal with why it's happening with all the drives in My Computer.BTW, just so it's clear, the problem is with these drive folder letters, not with the subdirectories; e.g., the desktop icon for "D:\Program Files" works just fine. Thanks. Edited May 31, 2005 by genegold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted May 31, 2005 Share Posted May 31, 2005 Just right-click a bare area of your Desktop and choose New>Shortcut and put in the same path you typed into the Run box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 1, 2005 Author Share Posted June 1, 2005 Just right-click a bare area of your Desktop and choose New>Shortcut and put in the same path you typed into the Run box. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Good. Thanks. Now, how do I get it behaving correctly within My Computer? Gene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalegtr18 Posted June 1, 2005 Share Posted June 1, 2005 Hmmm, well here's something that popped into my head. It's an older trick that has solved a few mysterious problems with the Windows operating system. You could try reinstalling Internet Explorer (ie6setup.exe). As Gates said in the famous courtcase a few years ago re: IE and Netscape, IE is an integral part of the OS. I guess he wasn't fooling! :-) I don't think any harm can come from this- the only caution you need to undertake is reinstalling all the Windows updates for IE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 Good. Thanks. Now, how do I get it behaving correctly within My Computer? Gene<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Then go back to post #5 above and set 'open' as the default action. That should set it back to XP's default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 2, 2005 Author Share Posted June 2, 2005 Then go back to post #5 above and set 'open' as the default action. That should set it back to XP's default.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Perhaps I'll modify this after a restart, but setting open as the default doesn't bring a happy ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 This is one of those problems that's hard to troubleshoot over a forum. I can't really tell you what else to try at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 What are the properties of 'open' when you go into Folder and look at the actions? Is explorer.exe with a location of your %system% folder like when you did it manually?Can you type here what it does say? Or take a screenshot and post it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted June 2, 2005 Share Posted June 2, 2005 Compatibility Mode settings perhaps ? ?Just fishing here.patio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 What are the properties of 'open' when you go into Folder and look at the actions? Is explorer.exe with a location of your %system% folder like when you did it manually?Can you type here what it does say? Or take a screenshot and post it?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm not sure what you are asking, because there is no properties in Folder/File Types/advanced/Edit File Type. There are two checkbox options and Confirm open after download is checked. I'm not sure what you are asking in the second sentence either.OTOH, if you mean in My Computer, I noticed that when I right-click on a drive letter and then Open in the popup menu, it opens correctly. But not when opened directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 You should see something similar to this: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 4, 2005 Author Share Posted June 4, 2005 You should see something similar to this:<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sure, that's exactly what mine looks like, including the checked box. That's what I described. What properties are you referring to? I had double-clicked on open and nothing happened, and a right-click is "What's this?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 You need to set one as the 'default' action. Typically, it is 'open'. 'Explore' will open a folder in the Windows Explorer mode, with a list of folders on the left side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 4, 2005 Author Share Posted June 4, 2005 You need to set one as the 'default' action. Typically, it is 'open'. 'Explore' will open a folder in the Windows Explorer mode, with a list of folders on the left side.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks. There must be something I'm missing or not conveying clearly enough, because I've gotten to the screenshots shown above many times since we started this (File types, folder, advanced), set 'open' as the default, but nothing has changed and nothing else opens. And the problem remains when left-clicking on the drive letters in My Computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 I'm not sure what more I can tell you at this point, unfortunately. You may wish to try a repair install to see if that solves this problem.Do you recall making any kind of registry change, or installing any kind of Tweaking utility that might have caused this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 4, 2005 Author Share Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) I'm not sure what more I can tell you at this point, unfortunately. You may wish to try a repair install to see if that solves this problem.Do you recall making any kind of registry change, or installing any kind of Tweaking utility that might have caused this?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks to everyone for their help. I would like to run repair, but XP/SP2 precludes that, as I understand it, without rolling back or even starting over again. BTW, I've got email notification setup on this item and the address is correct, but I haven't received any alertsr. Edited June 4, 2005 by genegold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Have you tried to reset the defaults on the General Tab under Tools > Folder Options?That might help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James M. Fisher Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Thanks to everyone for their help. I would like to run repair, but XP/SP2 precludes that, as I understand it, without rolling back or even starting over again. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It can be accomplished with a 'slipstreamed' copy of XP SP2.See "Slipstreaming CDs" on my Windows page: http://www.windowstalk.org/Windows.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) If that doesn't work, you might try this trick ... even though it's not exactly the same problem ... it is opening something other than what it's supposed to and this is supposed to fix it so it works as it was originally: Windows Explorer Opens Search Companion Rather than the FolderIf the Windows Explorer opens up the Search Companion rather than opening up the actual folder, the default setting for opening a folder is changed.To correct this: 1. Start Regedit 2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Directory \ shell and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Drive \ shell] 3. Edit the default value to be explorer or nonedownload reg file This was from this site: Windows XP Tips - Windows Explorer opens the Search Companion Rather than the Folder Edited June 4, 2005 by LilBambi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 5, 2005 Author Share Posted June 5, 2005 If that doesn't work, you might try this trick ... even though it's not exactly the same problem ... it is opening something other than what it's supposed to and this is supposed to fix it so it works as it was originally:This was from this site: Windows XP Tips - Windows Explorer opens the Search Companion Rather than the Folder<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Give Fran aka LilBambi a big prize and hug! The regedit file you linked had the solution: there was no 'none' in my \Drive\Shell data column. Many thanks to all for trying to help. Now I can move onto posing the next XP puzzler that's been plaguing me for a good year, but first I should look through Bob Cell's Windows Tips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Excellent! So glad that worked for ya! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Lots of great tidbits on that site, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genegold Posted June 5, 2005 Author Share Posted June 5, 2005 It can be accomplished with a 'slipstreamed' copy of XP SP2.See "Slipstreaming CDs" on my Windows page: http://www.windowstalk.org/Windows.htm<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks, James. I'm going to do this right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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