Program Files Folder Opens at Startup

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Guest

I have just gen'd a machine with Windows 2000 Server. In addition, I have the following software installed:

SQLServer 2000
Visual Studio 6 Enterprise
Office XP PRofessional
Visual Studio .NET 2003 (with Visio and VSS)
All the latest Windows 2000 Critical service packs and Office Updates are installed

During one of my reboots (unfortunately I don't know exactly which one) the following started occurring:

Immediately after a user logs in (any user), a Windows Explorer window opens, without the folders pane, displaying the Program Files folder.

I have tried to go through the registry looking at the "Run" key for every user and the local machine... I have looked at the Startup folder in the Start menu. I have not been able to determine what is causing this.

Has anyone seen this before?
 
Look for something suspicious here; Start\Settings\Control
Panel\Administrative Tools\Computer Management(Local)\System
Information\Software Environment\Startup Programs|View|Advanced, then in the
"Location" column, you'll find the path to the "Startup" location either in
the "Startup" directories or from the registry's "Run" keys.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft MVP [Windows NT/2000 Operating Systems]

pete said:
I have just gen'd a machine with Windows 2000 Server. In addition, I have
Click to expand...
the following software installed:
SQLServer 2000
Visual Studio 6 Enterprise
Office XP PRofessional
Visual Studio .NET 2003 (with Visio and VSS)
All the latest Windows 2000 Critical service packs and Office Updates are installed

During one of my reboots (unfortunately I don't know exactly which one)
Click to expand...
the following started occurring:
Immediately after a user logs in (any user), a Windows Explorer window
Click to expand...
opens, without the folders pane, displaying the Program Files folder.
I have tried to go through the registry looking at the "Run" key for every
Click to expand...
user and the local machine... I have looked at the Startup folder in the
Start menu. I have not been able to determine what is causing this.
 
I was in there before, but I didn't think anything looked suspicious. However, I think I'm going to try removing each item one at a time and see what that does. Everything there looks ok to me but it's always possible one of those programs is causing this.

thanks
 
In the Run keys both HKLM and HKCU make sure that only 8.3 file (and folder) names are used when a path to an executable is listed.
 
I must thank both of you for your suggestions. Each of them caused me to investigate areas I had not before. Unfortunately none of these was the cause of the problem. And also, unfortunately, I cannot tell you what the actual cause of the problem was, but it is solved.

When I went in to the Computer Management console and looked at the startup items there, the first thing I noticed which was odd was that I had only one item listed under ALL USERS, yet I knew that I had 4 items in the All Users Startup menu. I systematically deleted one item at a time and examined the list again in the Computer Management console. Each time I deleted a Startup menu item from the Start menu, the next one in the list would appear in the CM console. Eventually I removed them all and the problem went away. Oddly, when I readded them all to the Startup menu, the problem did not come back. By the way, the paths on the items in the CM console were mixed - some had long filenames and some had 8.3. They are still mixed now and I no longer get the Program Files folder to popup.

thanks again
 
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