no common task pane, can't open add/remove programs, boot screen s

hi guys, my computers been acting strange lately (i run a windows xp), it has a couple weird issues that just came up first of all, when i turn on the computer every morning, the windows boot screen would run for a little bit, and then eventually stop, and then i would have to manually force the computer to shut down and turn it back on again, and it'd work fine that problem's been bugging me for a while, but this morning again the same thing happened again, but more problems got added. whenever i open a folder, the common tasks lane on the left side is gone! so i went back to folder options and tried to make sure its on 'show common tasks in folders', but it didnt work!!! and the other problem i noticed so far was that, my "add or remove programs" application isnt running, its not working at all for some reason i believe theres a lot of files in my windows xp that are corrupted? i only saw three problems, but perhaps theres more that i dont know of. anyone know a good solution to my case?

Hello Jordan_Inc,

Let's start off by running the System File Checker Utility (SFC) to verify the integrity of files on your system:
Go to Start | Run, type sfc /scannow, and press Enter.

If SFC does identify missing or corrupted Operating System files, it may ask you to insert your Windows XP installation CD so a fresh copy of the correct file can be copied and pasted into the system files.

If you do not have your Windows XP installation CD, or if errors in the process occur, please post back with specifics or questions.

SFC scan and replacements take about 8-12 minutes depending upon the size of your file tree and the speed of your CPU/RAM. If SFC opens and then closes within a few seconds or under one minute, It did not complete, and must be repeated.

Sometimes, a second scan run of SFC is necessary, even if SFC completes the first time, in order to replace all missing or corrupted files. If SFC completes, you can safely run it a second time for good measure.

A good way to tell whether you should run it again is if you look in the Event Log and see the following Application event entry after running SFC:

Source:	  Windows File Protection 
Event ID:	64002 (or 64021)

For your Common tasks pane issue, do the following:

• Go to Start, right-click My Computer, and select Properties
• Click the Advanced tab
• Under Performance, click Settings
• In the Performance Options window, select the Visual Effects tab
• Make sure the "Use common tasks in folders" option is selected
• Click OK and OK again

Let me know if this helps,

Ax

In addition to Ax's suggestions, is your system clean of malware? I would run through your arsenal of anti-malware scanners to make sure. If you do not have a complete set of tools, follow this link to my canned text on Cleaning Out Malware that may be of some use for cleaning out your system, and for building your own security suite.

Also, boot problems are often caused by hardware or hardware driver problems. Does it take a long time to boot into Safe Mode? I would disconnect all unnecessary devices, especially USB devices such as external drives, and see what happens. Also, look in Device Manager for errors. Make sure you are not mapping to any networked drives. And finally, a failing CMOS battery could also do this. If this PC is 3 years old or more, I would just replace the battery. They are typically CR2032 wafer type batteries, available at any battery/camera counter for a couple bucks. Do verify the battery type just in case yours is different.

ax, i did the SFC scan, and it ran through the entire process. but when it finished scanning, nothing happened, i didn't see any logs, nothing. (i performed the scan twice and it's the same result) also, i performed the Common tasks pane issue solution, and it didn't work neither.

You'll need to go into the Windows Event Viewer (Start | Run, type eventvwr.msc, and press Enter) to view the event logs. The logs should be on the system tab I think. What you want is for a 64016 followed directly by a 64017 without any other 640xx events between.

Have you followed Digerati's instructions yet? If not, please do so now.

Kelly's Korner also has a fix that might help you, it's listed on line 73, the "Common Tasks View - Disable or Enable" entry. Click the "Enable" one and perform the registry merge.

Regards,

Ax

i was going to do like you asked later on today, but when i came back home, turned on my computer…something horrible happened

this screen showed up: http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/7065/dsc00059bk2.jpg

so first I chose "start windows normally", then it goes onto the boot screen and shows up for about 3 seconds, and the computer restarts all over again
the second time and third i tried "safe mode" and "last known good config.", and the same thing happened

and so, am i totally screwed? is it even going to work if i try re-installing windows xp? what REALLY bothers me is that…all of my files and info will be gone.

P.S. (i'm on another computer right now)

Before you do anything else, move the hard drive to another computer and mount it as a slave. Copy all your personal data off so you don't lose it (if you can). If you can't, try running chkdsk x: /f against the drive (x: is whatever drive letter XP assigns to the drive). If that works then save your data, put it back in the original computer as a master and see if it boots. Running chkdsk may have fixed it. If not, boot your XP CD and enter R the first time you are allowed to. This wills start the Recovery Console. From the command prompt, enter the following commands: fixboot fixmbr Reboot and see if XP will come up now. If not, go the the drive manufacturers web site and download their drive utility software and check the hard drive for physical problems.