Annoying Problem....

[Win2Win]

Left the laptop on last night while went for a shower, came back and an annoying grey bar, of the 'my documents' kind has appeared down the right.

No one of course touched the damn thing :rolleyes:

Their is no right click, no hidden menu's, I've tried everything I can think off, although I'm pushed for time...

Also when I click on Windows Explorer icon, it shows an error, and the icons in the bottom right vanish!!

As long as it's OK for the update......:rolleyes: :geek

[vegyjones]

Start -> Programmes -> Get rid of grey thingy!

:D

[Win2Win]

It's turned PINK now :yikes:

[Win2Win]

Anyone????? HEEELLLLPPPP>>>>>

[MarcusMel]

Click in the grey area and hold then move the bar to the side you want

[MarcusMel]

Tool bars Float so you can put them where you want and accidentally where you dont want them. Right mouse click after moving it and there is an option to fix the toolbar to stop the accident from happening again

[MarcusMel]

Actually is it a tool bar:confused:

[mathare]

Not sure it is MM....

[Win2Win]

Nope, it won't do anything. No options, no right/left click, no docking, no hidden menu's, live desktop not active.....done system restore....still their.......now all the icons have moved to the left, and no matter what I select, they go back!!

No viruses or anything, all clean. Annoying me now, as I've just got my telescope camera.

It is basically the left side of the 'My Computer' window, except now window or options!!

[silax]

just ignore it and pretend you've got an inch less.
will make a change from pretending you have an inch more

[zomby]

I'm probably wrong..but if you right click on your taskbar (the one at the bottom), do you have it listed in the "Toolbars" section ? Might just need to untick it?

[vegyjones]

What about changing your desktop background?

[Win2Win]

Zomby - Nope

Vegy - Nope

Now it doesn't recognise my new camera after it crashed when running the bloody imaging software I got with it ;fire Ah well, what can you expect for an 11 month wait, and only $1000 :doh

[MarcusMel]

I can not find the view as web page option anymore I thought it might be Keiths problem might be realated to that but I can not see the option to change to it anymore:confused:

[mathare]

Just format your HDD Keith :wink

[Littlegaz]

Don't be silly Mat, this is a serious problem.

Keith, first kick the monitor very very hard, and if that doesn't do it, set about it in alternate 10 second intervals with an ice pick and an angle grinder.

[Win2Win]

I piddled in the USB but that only made everything stand up :yikes:

[TheOldhamWhisper]

Try changing screen resolutions - let me know if it is still there.

[Win2Win]

Still there....stuborn bugger isn't it?

[TheOldhamWhisper]

OK, try Desktop Properties - Desktop - Customize Desktop and look to see if there is anything unusual in there.

[TheOldhamWhisper]

You might also want to have a look in your startup to see if there are any odd-looking .dll files loading.

[Win2Win]

Nope & Nope :(

Put on a new Profile, and that is nice & clean :D

Still want the original sorted though..........bloody camera software keeps locking up as well.......trying to get hold of a third party. Nice clear night and all.

[Elbarto]

Try CTRL + ALT + DEL and have a look in the processes section for any weird looking "Image Names". If you find one that doesnt look normal, type in the name.exe into google and try and find what it is

[Win2Win]

3 screen fulls in my processing box :yikes: Already done that though :(

[Fadetoblack]

System restore?

[sparkyminer]

It's your PC....

PCWORLD state: Reformat the drive, then purchase new computer from them

I found this advice on another thread, thought it might be useful.:D

[GlosRFC]

Hello Keith

Yes, you've successfully created a My Documents toolbar on your desktop. The usual way of creating one is to right-click the normal XP toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Toolbars, then New. This allows you to create a toolbar out of any directory on your PC.
Normally, this new toolbar would also sit at the bottom of the screen so somehow, without anyone touching it at all, it's been dragged over to the left-hand side of your desktop. However you say you can no longer drag it anywhere else which would suggest that it's become corrupted in some way.

First check...do a right-click on your toolbar, click Toolbars and see if it's listed there. If so, it should be ticked - untick it. If it's not listed there, then try creating a new toolbar to see if this will kick the duff one into action. Then untick both of them.
If none of that works I'll try to identify the rogue entry in your registry that should kill it.

[Win2Win]

Already done the system restore FTB......:(

Alreay looked around their Glos, when I tick Arrange, etc, bugger all happens!! But I'll give the setup another toolbar a go now.

Not sure how it happened, I was in the shower....and the wife says she didn't touch.....!

Thanks.

[Win2Win]

....nope...that never worked. Made new one, ticked/unticked, nothing :(

I'll try a system Repair after racing, although if the Restore didn't do anthing, not sure that will, but then, you never know with Microsoft.

It's annoying because they are usually undocakble, or menued, but bugger all on this one.

Looks like a registry fix, but buggered if I know what to look for, and haven't found anything on the web yet.

[GlosRFC]

That's the mystifying thing - that it can't be moved as it's definitely a toolbar. Is it locked to the desktop? Try a right-click on on your desktop, select Arrange Icons and see if the Lock Web Items to Desktop is checked.

I'll have a think about the registry.

[GlosRFC]

Aha...just had another squint at your miniscule screenshot and it's not a toolbar after all - it's the Common Pane that's added your windows folders, e.g. the File and Folder tasks, Other Places, Details etc bit that shows up when you open My Documents.

You'll need to change the PersistMoniker value in your registry. One way is to locate the hidden file desktop.htt (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\General User\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer where General User is the profile name - do a search and you'll find it) and simply delete it. When you reboot, Windows will create a new default version for you.

Alternatively, copy the following highlighted text into Notepad and save it with the extension .reg
e.g. fixcommonpane.reg
Then locate that file and double-click it so that it merges with your existing registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\shellex\ExtShellFolderViews\{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}]
"PersistMoniker"=hex(2):66,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,3a,00,2f,00,2f,00,25,00,75,00,\
73,00,65,00,72,00,61,00,70,00,70,00,64,00,61,00,74,00,61,00,25,00,5c,00,4d,\
00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,5c,00,49,00,6e,00,74,00,\
65,00,72,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,20,00,45,00,78,00,70,00,6c,00,6f,00,72,00,65,\
00,72,00,5c,00,44,00,65,00,73,00,6b,00,74,00,6f,00,70,00,2e,00,68,00,74,00,\
74,00,00,00

If none of the above works, then this should. Copy the following highlighted text into Notepad and save it with a .vbs extension
e.g. fixcommonpane.vbs
Locate the file and double-click it to run

p1="HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}\shellex\ExtShellFolderViews\{5984FFE0-28D4-11CF-AE66-08002B2E1262}\PersistMoniker"
p2="file://%userappdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop.htt"

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.RegWrite p1, p2, "REG_EXPAND_SZ"

X = MsgBox("Log off/log on or Reboot for the change to take effect.", 4096,"Finished")

Set WshShell = Nothing

N.B. in both cases, the line that contains the HKEY reference should be one continuous line, i.e. no wordwrap. I'm sure you can figure that out :D

[Win2Win]

Cheers Glos, I'll give it a go after the last race, currently trying to stop the scope camera from locking up the damn laptop :( That seems to be a USB problem, narrowing the problem down though.

[Win2Win]

:clp :mady :waver :REDanceda :REDanceda :REDanceda :D

Magic......

....the last one worked.....the desktop.htt couldn't be found, although according to the MS site, it is well hidden these days to stop anyone piddling with it.

Cheers Glos....the flowers are on the way :yikes:

[tophatter]

Brilliant Glos.

Why bother with an I.T. helpline at a premium rate when good people like yourself are prepared to help out. Well done mate

[bigcumba]

Why bother with an I.T. helpline at a premium rate when good people like yourself are prepared to help out.

Because they need some sort of job for folk that aren't qualified enough to work at McDonalds. :D

[GlosRFC]

Good stuff :D

Of course, if anyone wants to consider offering me a highly-paid IT support job.....??

[Win2Win]

You can have full use of Dolly for a year for that. Make sure you get the right end, those teeth are sharp.....I should know :yikes: