Mrs. Muddled Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 Okay ... this is my second attempt to write this. Yesterday I had a staff member from Microsoft working on a fix to do with critical updates that would not install. I gave her access to my computer. That problem appears to have been fixed. Today we discovered that all of the user icons that are usually on our desktop have disappeared, except for mine. My husband is none too amused. Is there something really obvious that would enable me to fix this? Yes, I've left a message with MS for call back. I'm getting antsy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Dick Posted August 29, 2009 Share Posted August 29, 2009 I'm assuming your on Vista from previous posts, if so try the following. If all your icons are missing: >Right click on an empty space on your desktop >Select Arrange Icons By >Then make sure there is a check mark by Show Desktop Icons If you are only missing icons such as My Computer, Recycle Bin, etc: >Right click on an empty space on your desktop >Click on "Personalize" and Click "Change Desktop Icons" in the left column > In the new window, place a check next to the icons you want and click Apply then OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Muddled Posted August 30, 2009 Author Share Posted August 30, 2009 (edited) Thanks for the reply Dick. I probably was not clear in my description of the problem. Actually ALL of my files are okay ... the file that was corrupted when MS did their fix was the file that controls the logon icon that the satellite users of my computer (my husband) use to log in. So when the computer turns on what I see is ONLY the log in icon with my name on it (I am the only administrator on the computer). All of the files are still in the computer and I have been able to rescue all of his files and copy them to a new name I have given his log in. What he lost was his connection to shawmail ... our ISP. So I re-registered his email address under his old name and password. I got all his new un-read emails back and all his contacts are in place. What has disappeared is all his saved email folders - of course with lots of info he did not want to lose. The drafts, sent, deleted files, all empty. I tried calling Shaw but they blew it off saying it is a Microsoft problem. The tech seemed to think MS could find those folders. What do you think? Now I'm a little skittish at the thought of letting MS back into my computer to try to fix it ... for fear they make a worse mess. Edited August 30, 2009 by Mrs. Muddled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Dick Posted August 30, 2009 Share Posted August 30, 2009 They may have just disabled the user switching option, however, it sounds like they removed his user account but left the user files in place. Once you login to your account try hitting crt+alt+del and see if the swithc user is option is available. If thats not there it could be either of the above problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 To clarify one part of the problem, are you saying that when you first boot the computer and arrive at the Windows "Welcome" screen, your account is the only one shown, and thus you are the only person who can log in? I'm not familiar with the complications of networked computers, and I'm using XP rather than Vista. The consequences could be: things I mention below might have slightly different names, or not be in exactly the locations I say they are, or I could be totally wrong... First, most of the steps below involve just looking at things to assess what the problem is. I would avoid making any changes until Microsoft has had ample time to get back to you. After you have logged into your regular administrator account, go to Control Panel > User Accounts. As an administrator, you should be able to see all the existing accounts. See if your husband's account (and any others that should be there) are still there. I can't check it now because I'm not in my administrator account, but I believe that's also the place where you can view and change the Fast User Switching setting. If it's not, go to Start > Help and Support, search for "fast user switching", and follow links to instructions how to turn it on and off. If your husband's account was not shown in User Accounts, it would seem that the account was somehow deleted but the files left intact. Did you rescue his entire "user profile", or only his files that were in My Documents? If it was only My Documents, I'd do it again to get the entire user profile: it's at C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\ and contains a whole bunch of files and folders in addition to the ones in My Documents. You can burn them to DVD from, for example, Nero. If necessary to conserve space, there are some large things like Temporary Internet Files that you can omit. Assuming your email program is Outlook: within his user profile should be a folder called C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ that should contain a file called Outlook.pst that contains all his active accumulated email folders and messages. If he has archived old messages, those will be in additional ".pst" files. I did once have to rescue a corrupted user in the way you're having to do, by creating a new user and transferring whatever files and settings I could, but it was a few years ago and I don't remember a lot about it. I was not able to "uncorrupt" the user and make the account usable again, but I didn't know much about XP back then. That's why it would be good to wait until you hear from Microsoft; they might know how. If you can't repair the old account and have to use the new one, what I would try myself in this situation is: in the new account, in the folder that contains the .pst files (see above) should be a small Outlook.pst file that just contains the initial data for a new user. I'd rename that file to Outlook.pst.bak (or something like that), and copy into this folder the rescued Outlook.pst file from the old account, and any other .pst files. When you open Outlook in the new account, I think it is likely you'll find all the old lost data is magically there. A user profile contains thousands of files and configuration settings, which is why it is good to rescue all of it in case some of the other things can be restored as easily as the Outlook items, although I'm not sure that they can, and in some cases doing it that way might be more trouble than just creating the new settings fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Muddled Posted August 31, 2009 Author Share Posted August 31, 2009 Many thanks for your thoughtful replies. I appreciate your attempts to assist me so much. Why I never thought of this before escapes me ... but ... all I had to do to find all those missing emails in d.h.'s files was go to search and type *.eml and every single email that's ever been saved to this computer is there! He's happy. I'm happy. For what it's worth ... we use Windows Mail not Outlook. His account was still showing in user accounts. Everything was there. The tech from MS was somewhat difficult to understand and I had clicked on and selected everything under Tom's user name and copied it over to the new Tom2 user file I started. The tech apparently didn't want me to do it that way. He wanted me to do the copy and transfer bit by bit ... starting with his documents. I don't really understand his reasoning ... he said something about him ending up with double folders (or something like that) but there you have it ... he's up and running once again. Thanks again for your attempts to save me from myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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