OT: XP Computer Question

[Jeff B.]

A friend of mine had an unclean uninstall of some software. Now when he starts up he gets an error message that a certain file can not be found. (It's not there because it was removed during the uninstall.) However, this command is still in his start up. He has XP and using System Info, Tools, Start-up Config, I can see the line for the program and can uncheck it. Unchecked everything starts up fine, but Windows tells me it's in diagnostic mode. If I go back in all I can do is turn this line back on. I can not see how to remove this line from the start up. I already looked under the start menu at the start up items, but it only lists a couple of things, and this program is not one of them. I ran Win Doctor in Norton Utilities and it finds this conflict but says it can't repair it. Can someone tell me how to remove this line from the Start Up config?

Thanks,
Jeff B.

[sandycat]

hey JeffB, you may have to dig into the windows registry to remove that entry. you'll need to log in with administrator privileges in order to edit it. you may want to first log in as administrator then use the config tool again and see if this removes the entry. whatever you do, especially if you do decide on manually editing the registry, be careful since it can render the computer unbootable. hope this helps.

sandycat

> A friend of mine had an unclean uninstall of
> some software. Now when he starts up he gets
> an error message that a certain file can not
> be found. (It's not there because it was
> removed during the uninstall.) However, this
> command is still in his start up. He has XP
> and using System Info, Tools, Start-up
> Config, I can see the line for the program
> and can uncheck it. Unchecked everything
> starts up fine, but Windows tells me it's in
> diagnostic mode. If I go back in all I can
> do is turn this line back on. I can not see
> how to remove this line from the start up. I
> already looked under the start menu at the
> start up items, but it only lists a couple
> of things, and this program is not one of
> them. I ran Win Doctor in Norton Utilities
> and it finds this conflict but says it can't
> repair it. Can someone tell me how to remove
> this line from the Start Up config?

> Thanks,
> Jeff B.

[bobbarkto]

It's probably in one of the Registry "run" entries. Regedit32 and search for the file name.

Is the file a .DLL?

Unregister it first.

At the "Start | Run" command type the following command. Substitute the name of the dll file where indicated.

regsvr32 /u dllFileName.dll

Click OK.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

Start > Run Type regedit and hit OK

expand to the branch below.

HKEY_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\windows\curr ent version\run

Look for the offending program among the keys in that area and delete it.

[Jeff B.]