SillyDog701

[Mosquat]

Greetings, I would like some help with a problem I have come across numerous times at work.

Basically a software vendor we deal with recommends deleting all activex components from within IE (start IE, select 'Tools' - 'Internet Options' - 'Settings' from the general tab then click on 'View Objects') whenever they bring out an update so the software will install correctly. Personally I never bother and the software always works fine. But another person at work always does delete em' and this sometimes screws up the desktop! All of the icons read "desktop" instead of "My Computer" or "My Network Places" etc. I have had a good look around the web for a fix but no one else seems to have come across this problem before. The two fixes I have in mind or use at the moment are:

re-image the machine with a standard Win2k ghost image.
&
Stop this person deleting the activex components!

I am not really desperate for a "better" fix as you can see but just interested in what is causing the screw up (aside from the berk who deletes everything). Perhaps somebody could give me some advice on how to identify and differentiate between the various activex components - there must be one that is really crucial and deleting causes this (seemingly irreversable) problem.

I cant provide much more detail at the moment as i am not at work but can get more info and screen dumps etc tommorrow.

Thanks for your advice

Ed.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4.1) Gecko/20031008

[Fulvio]

I don't know which one would cause him trpoble, but I decided to check what I have. I never deleted any of the ActiveX components, because I had learned that trying to work with them may hazardous. So, I had let them do their thing, which is not too much, since I, normally, use Netscape, Mozilla, or some other program with the gecko engine.
To make a long story short, I had 10 items, three of them were Java related, and two of them "damaged" since I had uninstalled two previous version of Java. I deleted the two, and left alone the one related to the present Java.
At least two more don't work, so we are down to a couple of Shockwave items, and two related to Microsoft, one to WM9, and the other about program setups. Why don't you check yours?
As for the naming of the shortcuts, do you mean any shortcut, or only those couple of Microsoft's? Nothing else should be changed, and you may be able to look at the shortcut propertie, and rename it. I am not interested in testing this, but as you can tell that there is a lot of dead wood.
I have WinXP, which is a close relative to Win2k.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:0.9.4.2) Gecko/20021112 CS 2000 7.0/7.0

[Mosquat]

Thanks for the response.

Basically I am (or was) unable to view the activex objects that were still present - it just didnt do anything -no errros nothing. Most apps wont run either such as Paint.

I re-imaged the machine and took a screen dump of the components that are put in and would've been there for the berk to delete. they were:

"ActiveXATS.ActiveXDemo2" - which is the one for the software we are installing

and

"Update Class" - which i think could possible be something to do with window update perhaps...although this is a total guess.

As you can see the machine is all working and due to go back in place very soon so there is no rush or expected resonse to be honest. was just interested how such a small component can totally screw Explorer and the desktop.

BTW i never use IE either...mozilla is far, far better

Thanks

Ed.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007