new desktop

[7932]

Hi Guys

This is strange but I have across serious problem. This afternoon when started computer I got strange start up message about " preparing new desktop". Lost all my desktop icons, browsing history/bookmarks in Firefox, cant start any games in steam or origin. Managed to restore old desktop icons with tutorial's script but after restart I was back with "new desktop". tried to find solution how to get it back to previous state but seem to get stuck. Silly me got system restore disabled so I cant restore this way. PLEASE HELP.....

 

[Hermitt43]

Try right-clicking the taskbar >Toolbars / if desktop is checked, uncheck it and restart your PC.
hope this helps.

 

[bigmck]

Hi Guys

This is strange but I have across serious problem. This afternoon when started computer I got strange start up message about " preparing new desktop". Lost all my desktop icons, browsing history/bookmarks in Firefox, cant start any games in steam or origin. Managed to restore old desktop icons with tutorial's script but after restart I was back with "new desktop". tried to find solution how to get it back to previous state but seem to get stuck. Silly me got system restore disabled so I cant restore this way. PLEASE HELP.....

You need to do a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html to a date before you had the problem. This will not affect any Documents, Pictures etc. If you have installed any programs after the date selected, you will have to install them again.

 

[7932]

I cant do any restores as I have not been running system restore so there is nothing to restore from. And everything is ticked. Some icons have appeared but all the shortcuts to folders, documents and files have not. Initially BAT file from http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3659-desktop-icons-hide-show.html?filter[2]=Appearance%20Personalize restored my old settings but after reboot its back to "prepared new desktop" on Windows start and back to same problem. All my browsing history/bookmarks in Firefox have gone - funny when I looked into folders I can see all my shortcuts and favourites but there are not on the desktop. There must be a way to get my old desktop items back...

 

[bigmck]

It sounds like you opened a new User Account. == Go to Control Panel, User Account, Manage Another Account. == This will list the different User Accounts on your computer. You might have accidently created another account for yourself. Let me know what your find.

 

[Ztruker]

This was written for XP but also applies to Vista, 7 and 8.

Before doing any of the following, make a backup of your registry. I suggest you install ERUNT to do this.

Your files are still there. Sounds like your user profile has lost it's connection with where it's data is stored. If you are comfortable with using regedit, try this by booting to Safe Mode by pressing F8 during boot. Login as Administrator, no password.

The key is a registry hack that redirects Windows back to the ProfileImagePath of the original profile.

Click on Start then Run. type regedit and press Enter or click OK.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Once there, you will see the SID's listed for all of the profiles on the machine. Something like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-18
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-19
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-20
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-2734701773-3490380084-605924724-1001
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-2734701773-3490380084-605924724-1004
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\S-1-5-21-2734701773-3490380084-605924724-500

On my system, my profile is under the one that ends in 1001, yours may be different, check them all.

Within the Key for each SID there is an entry called "ProfileImagePath" that will look like

ProfileImagePath REG_EXPAND_SZ C:\Users\UserName...

Scroll through the SID's until you find the one with the screwy name, like

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\youruserid.2

This is just an example, could be something else weird.

Just edit the Key to remove the ".2" (or whatever is bogus), and it will point the user back to their old profile...


Got this from TechRepublic.com[\url] but it's no longer there.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=10&threadID=164922&messageID=1914470