start then documents then FREEZE, a new problem.

[Bob]

This AM I noticed that when looking at the Start menu, whenever
Documents was selected the system froze. I hit ctl-alt-del and things
look ok, explorer is listed on top and nothing is "not responding". I
terminated explorer and in a few flashy seconds I'm back where I
started.

Only thing new is yesterday I downloaded a new merijn coolwebshredder.
I ran it and the lavasoft adaware programs but they both said
everything was clean.

I can get on the web, check email, etc. no problem. Just have to be
careful using the Start menu. I expect I will use system restore?

I don't use tweakUI (yet). I do use ZoneAlarm and McAfee but haven't
changed anything with them for a month or more. Yes, I got messages
about disabling Active Desk Top which so far I am ignoring.

Should I do a system restore? I don't find any other reports of this
problem. Anything else I should check?

Cheers
Bob

[Bob]

Update: this evening this WimME machine worked fine checking some
things on Amazon with ie 5.5.4807.2300 (128 bit cipher), bringing in
the wife's email with oe 5.50.4807.1700, bringing in my email with
Outlook 2000 SR-1 9.0.0.3821 (40 bit cipher) and was reminded of some
other "discrepancies" that we've been tolerating and may be related.
Sporadically: switching tasks from the taskbar fails, minimizing web
pages fails (a little animation occurs but the browser screen stays
where it was), starting apps from QuickLaunch brings them up with a
minimized (and rather often not "on top") screen. But I can go to the
Start Menu and start another program. I think I can usually cick the
desktop icon in the taskbar quick launch. Or I can use the top-Z window
application's menus and exit that application. Alt tab usually
continues to switch taks. A reboot always squares things away. It may
be that Sessions with FrontPage2000 (4.0.2.4426) and the others just
mentioned interact poorly and cause all or some of the problems we see
here (but the main problem I brought up yester day which migh just as
well be described as "lingering on the Documents icon from the Startup
menu partially hangs the gui - full recovery requires restart").
Another thing I recall changing recently was having Outlook2000 use
Word2000 (9.0.4402 SR-1) to prepare html format emails. Although we had
experimented with it a few years ago, for the most part we've used the
outlook editor to prepare email....

Now has the lighbulb turned on for anybody?
Bob

Bob wrote:
> This AM I noticed that when looking at the Start menu, whenever
> Documents was selected the system froze. I hit ctl-alt-del and
things
> look ok, explorer is listed on top and nothing is "not responding".
I
> terminated explorer and in a few flashy seconds I'm back where I
> started.
>
> Only thing new is yesterday I downloaded a new merijn
coolwebshredder.
> I ran it and the lavasoft adaware programs but they both said
> everything was clean.
>
> I can get on the web, check email, etc. no problem. Just have to be
> careful using the Start menu. I expect I will use system restore?
>
> I don't use tweakUI (yet). I do use ZoneAlarm and McAfee but haven't
> changed anything with them for a month or more. Yes, I got messages
> about disabling Active Desk Top which so far I am ignoring.
>
> Should I do a system restore? I don't find any other reports of this
> problem. Anything else I should check?
>
> Cheers
> Bob

[Noel Paton]

Bob - this sort of thing often occurs if there are either non-existent files
in the Recent Documents list, or the list refers to the floppy, or CD
drives - or even to files on a network, where the network is no longer
available.
Try clearing the Recent Documents list from
(r-click on the taskbar, select Properties)
Start Menu Properties|Advanced|Clear

see if that helps
(And I really would disable Active Desktop - it's a real PITA in Win9x
systems!)

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Bob" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Update: this evening this WimME machine worked fine checking some
> things on Amazon with ie 5.5.4807.2300 (128 bit cipher), bringing in
> the wife's email with oe 5.50.4807.1700, bringing in my email with
> Outlook 2000 SR-1 9.0.0.3821 (40 bit cipher) and was reminded of some
> other "discrepancies" that we've been tolerating and may be related.
> Sporadically: switching tasks from the taskbar fails, minimizing web
> pages fails (a little animation occurs but the browser screen stays
> where it was), starting apps from QuickLaunch brings them up with a
> minimized (and rather often not "on top") screen. But I can go to the
> Start Menu and start another program. I think I can usually cick the
> desktop icon in the taskbar quick launch. Or I can use the top-Z window
> application's menus and exit that application. Alt tab usually
> continues to switch taks. A reboot always squares things away. It may
> be that Sessions with FrontPage2000 (4.0.2.4426) and the others just
> mentioned interact poorly and cause all or some of the problems we see
> here (but the main problem I brought up yester day which migh just as
> well be described as "lingering on the Documents icon from the Startup
> menu partially hangs the gui - full recovery requires restart").
> Another thing I recall changing recently was having Outlook2000 use
> Word2000 (9.0.4402 SR-1) to prepare html format emails. Although we had
> experimented with it a few years ago, for the most part we've used the
> outlook editor to prepare email....
>
> Now has the lighbulb turned on for anybody?
> Bob
>
> Bob wrote:
>> This AM I noticed that when looking at the Start menu, whenever
>> Documents was selected the system froze. I hit ctl-alt-del and
> things
>> look ok, explorer is listed on top and nothing is "not responding".
> I
>> terminated explorer and in a few flashy seconds I'm back where I
>> started.
>>
>> Only thing new is yesterday I downloaded a new merijn
> coolwebshredder.
>> I ran it and the lavasoft adaware programs but they both said
>> everything was clean.
>>
>> I can get on the web, check email, etc. no problem. Just have to be
>> careful using the Start menu. I expect I will use system restore?
>>
>> I don't use tweakUI (yet). I do use ZoneAlarm and McAfee but haven't
>> changed anything with them for a month or more. Yes, I got messages
>> about disabling Active Desk Top which so far I am ignoring.
>>
>> Should I do a system restore? I don't find any other reports of this
>> problem. Anything else I should check?
>>
>> Cheers
>> Bob
>

[Bob]

Hi Noel

I appreciate the info. If that's what it takes then I guess thats what
I'll do.

But, before doing that, is there a way to dump the names & paths/urls
currently there to a file? I was just beginning to find
Start->Documents useful. It would be nice to edit the dumpfile, repair
or remove the offenders, then run a command (whatever) to repopulate
that Documents screen. I have VS6 + O2kDK, so if an OTS solution
doesn't exist (hard to imagine), with your outline, I or some progammer
looking for something useful to do could build one. If the
reconstruction is not worthwhile, the dumpfile could be used to
manually retouch (open?) the documents and thereby rebuild the list?

This is probably a dumb question but, since I can't check it right now
myself, I'll ask anyway. How is the Documents report different from
the list of recent (I/i)nternet activity?=)

[Noel Paton]

the info is held in the registry - and I wouldn't recommend playing around
in there too much.
(and won't post the details publicly anyhow)
if you look in the registry, it's easy enough to find - but remember that
the links are indexed, so you have to adjust the index so that it isn't
broken after removing the unwanted links - IMO, it's more hassle than it's
worth.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Bob" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi Noel
>
> I appreciate the info. If that's what it takes then I guess thats what
> I'll do.
>
> But, before doing that, is there a way to dump the names & paths/urls
> currently there to a file? I was just beginning to find
> Start->Documents useful. It would be nice to edit the dumpfile, repair
> or remove the offenders, then run a command (whatever) to repopulate
> that Documents screen. I have VS6 + O2kDK, so if an OTS solution
> doesn't exist (hard to imagine), with your outline, I or some progammer
> looking for something useful to do could build one. If the
> reconstruction is not worthwhile, the dumpfile could be used to
> manually retouch (open?) the documents and thereby rebuild the list?
>
> This is probably a dumb question but, since I can't check it right now
> myself, I'll ask anyway. How is the Documents report different from
> the list of recent (I/i)nternet activity?=)
>