XP ActiveX registry problems

[robertsonarch]

Hey guys, my first post after doing a bit of lurking. Great looking forum and I hope you can give a non-tech person a bit of assistance. I'm running XP Pro on a Dell 8200 desktop, P4@2.5.

Problem: I typically have several MS docs + IE5 open simulataneously, with constant file opening and closing. Also run Norton AV and Utilities in the background with system doctor icon visible. Often, now, when moving through documents and accessing My Documents or My Computer, double click these shortcuts causes the desktop to disappear and then reappear, but requires me to re-double click to open the folder.

I also notice that the Norton system doctor icon disappears.

When surfing the web after this sort of occurence, I can access webpages, but clicking on a link within the webpage gives me the old "this page is not availble, would you like to connect to the internet (or some such)". Infuriating to have to reconnect constantly (I use cable).

When this starts happening, I run Norton Win doctor, and inevitably the same repair items turn up the same 15 "Missing or invalid ACTIVEX/COM subkey entry" noted as medium severity. I also get 1 "missing shortcut". After executing repair, ie Delete, things seem to work fine........until the same thing happens again later in the day.

Running virus and trojan scans reveal no problems, nor does Norton disk doctor.

Suggestions?

 

[polle]

Hey guys, my first post after doing a bit of lurking. Great looking forum and I hope you can give a non-tech person a bit of assistance. I'm running XP Pro on a Dell 8200 desktop, P4@2.5.

Problem: I typically have several MS docs + IE5 open simulataneously, with constant file opening and closing. Also run Norton AV and Utilities in the background with system doctor icon visible. Often, now, when moving through documents and accessing My Documents or My Computer, double click these shortcuts causes the desktop to disappear and then reappear, but requires me to re-double click to open the folder.

I also notice that the Norton system doctor icon disappears.

When surfing the web after this sort of occurence, I can access webpages, but clicking on a link within the webpage gives me the old "this page is not availble, would you like to connect to the internet (or some such)". Infuriating to have to reconnect constantly (I use cable).

When this starts happening, I run Norton Win doctor, and inevitably the same repair items turn up the same 15 "Missing or invalid ACTIVEX/COM subkey entry" noted as medium severity. I also get 1 "missing shortcut". After executing repair, ie Delete, things seem to work fine........until the same thing happens again later in the day.

Running virus and trojan scans reveal no problems, nor does Norton disk doctor.

Suggestions?

 

[polle]

I am having exactly the same problems as you except this happens on w98se. I first try windoc and if this does not work I repair Internet Explorer, then the browsing is OK again. At times I have to remove a bad ActiveX again.

polle

 

[Lone Wolf]

Robertsonarch, have you tried either SFC or system restore? Before you try the latter, go to Start | Run and then type 'sfc' without the quotes. This will run the system file checker utility in Windows. It's been a while since i've run that utility as I run Win2K at home. There should be an option/button to click on that checks your system for any missing/corrupt system files.

In addition, I would get in the habbit of using some sort of spyware blaster like Spybot Search & Destroy or AdAware both of which are free on the internet.

As for the erros that Norton WinDoctor is giving you - it sounds like to me a key or a subkey in your registry has gone awry. Most of the errors that Windcotor finds is usually not urgent/serious. But in this case, it's hard to ignore as it keeps causing you problems. I suspect that this started to happen after you installed/uninstalled a program (or you updated a windows component) in which case a registry cleaner might help you.

Next time you run Windoctor, and it gives you those errors, try to pinpoint the where that key is located. Usually it will state which key/subkey that it found to be invalid.