How to fix start orb

[WillThGreatX]

I was playing around with the Start Orb Changer v2.6. I changed the start orb and when I logged on to the administrator account and the screen was black except for several error messages that said something about a bitmap. (Sorry can't remember!) After clicking 'OK' multiple times, it took me to my desktop. Everything was fine and the start orb even changed. I didn't want this error message anymore so I open the Start Orb Changer again and clicked 'Restore Original Explorer Backup.' My start orb was restored. I restarted my computer and logged back on only to find the old start orb again. I tried many thing and they all failed. I even took a fresh explorer.exe from my Windows 7 installation DVD and replaced it (giving myself ownership and all). It didn't work either. I must mention that prior to this I play messing with Custopack Tools to skin my Windows. Ended up not liking it so I restored the them and uninstalled Custopack. A little while ago, while trying to fix it, I stumbled upon a fellow user who seemed to be having the same problem. The solutions that worked for him didn't work for me, which were deleting the W7SOC folder in C:/Windows and running the Elevated Command Prompt with SFC SCANNOW. Didn't work. Another person said that using Start Orb Changer v3.1a to change it to the default orb would work, but alas, it did not. Now I must point out that while on the administrator account, opening the task manager and terminating the explorer.exe process and rerunning it does give me the default orb back, but every time I log out or restart it gives me the old start orb I don't want. ALSO, my user account is fine. I have the default orb on the user account even when I restart.

 

[A Guy]

Welcome to Seven Forums WillThGreatX. You say you ran the System File Checker (SFC). Did it find no errors? Or did it find errors it could not correct? W7SOC does save and rename the original explorer.exe. Do you show multiple explorer exe's?



SFC should restore the original system files, even if you have added custom themes. A Guy

 

[boohbah]

you could try using the orb changer to change the orb to the original, by that i dont mean have it restore but add the original bitmap orb as if it was a custom one.
here it is here
ive zipped it as you cant upload bitmaps to the forum

View attachment 1 - Copy.zip

 

[WillThGreatX]

Welcome to Seven Forums WillThGreatX. You say you ran the System File Checker (SFC). Did it find no errors? Or did it find errors it could not correct? W7SOC does save and rename the original explorer.exe. Do you show multiple explorer exe's?

View attachment 217719

SFC should restore the original system files, even if you have added custom themes. A Guy

The SFC found errors and it restored them, but I know some error were cause by a program called the Universal Theme Patcher. After the scan the start orb was still the apple orb (the orb that won't change). So I just used it to patch again so mt custom themes were working.
The C:/Windows looks like this:

Some of the other files named .old or _old were from me following tutorials trying t fix it and the others were from the program itself, I believe.

 

[A Guy]

It looks like all the backups were made on the same date. I would say that deleting all but the explorer.old, then renaming the explorer.old back to explorer.exe would be the way to go. I would make a system backup before attempting anything. You can also save the backups to a folder rather then deleting them, just in case. If restoring the backup has no effect, even if you have to run SFC again after, then I'd think a Repair install would be a valid fix.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

A Guy