Well I was tired of Windows Messenger so I decided to delete. I went to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components.
Well thanks to Microsoft's anti-user friendly system, I thought that what was checked would be deleted, so naturally I unchecked everything but windows messenger. Well it turns out whats not checked gets uninstalled. SO NOW I HAVE NO WINDOWS APPLICATIONS! Paint is gone, calculator is gone, and numerous others. How do I get them back!!! I haven't tried a system restore yet but I just did a bunch of stuff to the computer so I'd hate to have to do a restore, also I don't think it can bring back deleted files.
Please anyone, help…
Oh and I went back and checked what I *thought* was checked before (not everything was checked, only about 5 of the like 10 were checked) but when it tried to "re-install" it said it could not find the files from the CD so it didn't work =(. I don't know if I have the CD or if it will work that way either…
EDIT: Here's something else, when it comes up with the error saying it can't find "clpboard.exe" or "mspaint.exe" I click browse and it's in the i386 folder and I'm staring right at clpboard.exe, so I click it and click open but it still says it can't find it. What the heck? The only thing I can think of is that clpboard.exe is blue, which means it's compressed, and perhaps because it's compressed it can't be re-added as a component. If anyone knows how to decompress it that will help too.
Here's another thought. I have SP 2, but if I update to SP 3 would it re-install my components? I'd be willing to do it if it gives me back all my stuff :(.
Here's a third thought. What if I take all of the .exes from one computer, put them in a folder, and whenever the setup gets to a part where it can't find it, point it to my copied .exes, would that work?
…also I don't think it can bring back deleted files.
Correct. Unless the deleted/missing file was one of the Hive Registry files. Did you look in the recycle bin ? If the OS does not believe that they are present, I'm not sure what effect manually putting them back and launching will have….never tried it ! lol
EDIT: Here's something else, when it comes up with the error saying it can't find "clpboard.exe" or "mspaint.exe" I click browse and it's in the i386 folder and I'm staring right at clpboard.exe, so I click it and click open but it still says it can't find it. What the heck? The only thing I can think of is that clpboard.exe is blue, which means it's compressed, and perhaps because it's compressed it can't be re-added as a component. If anyone knows how to decompress it that will help too.
I have xp pro SP2, the copy is in a servicepackfile i386, and for either is not blue…..but to expand.
make sure there is no copy of it in %windows%\system32 if there is rename it.
expand C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\clipbrd.exe c:\windows\system32\clipbrd.exe (if yours is on C drive)
if it says it cannot expand it, then it's not compressed…it's encrypted.
Here's another thought. I have SP 2, but if I update to SP 3 would it re-install my components? I'd be willing to do it if it gives me back all my stuff :(.
Give you newer versions of the programs, but I do not believe that will 'install' windows components. Can you re-direct it's searching for the CD to one of the servicepackfiles i386 folder ?
Oh and I went back and checked what I *thought* was checked before (not everything was checked, only about 5 of the like 10 were checked) but when it tried to "re-install" it said it could not find the files from the CD so it didn't work =(. I don't know if I have the CD or if it will work that way either
Take the easy route, get a cd (appropriate svc pack level for your installation, svc pk 0,1,2) and do the the add and remove programs route. You will not be prompted for a key so no worries about that. Puts them all back into the proper place.
Tallon42 is on to something about redirecting the CD request to the i386 folder. Here is what I have on that
snip
you will need to tell your computer you now have the files on your PC.
We do this is the registry (type regedit in the Run box on the start menu) by navigating to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Setup
You will see various entries here on the right hand side. The one we want is called:
SourcePath
It probably has an entry pointing to your CD-ROM drive, and that is why it is asking for the XP CD. All we need to do is change it to:
C:\
Simply double click the SourcePatch setting and a new box will pop up allowing you to make the change.
end snip
Other route is to do the system restore at a date before you removed them.
Far as I know, the exe for those windows apps also has to be in the system32 folder not just the i386 one.
Yes I finally got it! But first, I have to say that I actually did this too two computers. One's a laptop and the other a desktop. I didn't try going to the laptop and re-checking everything, so I did that and it worked no problem.
Then I took the disk to Desktop and attempted to locate the files on it, I found them but when the Add Components got the error where it can't find the files, I re-directed it to the ones on the CD but it just came up with the same error saying it still can't find the files. Then I decided to go back to the files on the computer, I noticed there all compressed and thanks to Tallon I thought to decompress them. I highlighted all of the files and went to Properties > Advanced > Compressed and unchecked it and clicked apply. After it finished I tried the Add Components thing again, but still no luck, it would come up with a browse box and the file it said was missing would be staring me in the face, I select it and click open but of course it's blind so it can't see it.
Then, thanks to this microsoft article, I ran some program in CMD which fixed it and upon retrying it it worked! I actually never had to use the Methods in the article, just doing the first scan and this one, fixed it:
esentutl /p Drive:\WinDir\security\database\secedit.sdb
