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General discussion

What did my kid do?

Mar 29, 2004 11:45PM PST

My son was on my computer and he must have chosen something because now all my icons are selected and I have a tinted film that can be pulled over my screen .I am running Windows XP and there is nothing really wrong with the computer it is just annoying not being able to eliminate this film that retracts almost all the way to the right except for about an inch of the screen.Any help would be appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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Re:What did my kid do?
Mar 30, 2004 12:21AM PST

1. Ask him/her.
2. Right click on an empty part of the desktop, choose Properties and see if you can do anything about it. The desktop tab seems the first choice, but maybe another one applies. Be sure you know what you change, so you can change it back if necessary.
3. Go back to your last system restore point. That's what they are for!

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Re:Re:What did my kid do?
Mar 30, 2004 12:42AM PST

1)He doesn't remember
2)Did that and nothing comes up.
3)Restore had no restore points for some reason.

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A suggestion for the future.
Mar 30, 2004 5:01AM PST

Sorry that my suggestions didn't help. There was a remote possibility they should.

So the other way around, which is: give up.

- Give him his own profile/user name. Than he can't spoil your settings, read your mail, read and edit your documents. And, of course, the other way around, which he might find the good part of it.
- Also create a new profile (including a new desktop) for yourself, which might start clean. Transferring current data takes some care and administrator capabilities. It's a good idea in XP to have an administrator only for calamities, and for normal daily use use an account without such.

Hope this helps,


Kees

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Re:Re:Re:What did my kid do?
Mar 30, 2004 8:21PM PST

The article [Q300044] states that by default, System Restore is enabled on all hard-disk partitions upon the completion of Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Setup. However, after installation of the operating system, System Restore is automatically suspended when there is less than 200 megabytes (MB) of free hard-disk space on the system drive but will automatically resumes at the next system idle time when 200 MB is available. The same behavior is expected after installation if any of the partitions become low on available hard-disk space. Additionally, if disk-space use encroaches on the data store size, with non-monitored files for example, System Restore always yields its data store space to the system because the data store size is not a reserved space and is always calculated as effective size. For example, if the data store size is configured to 500 MB, of which 200 MB is already used and the current free hard-disk space is only 150 MB, the effective size is 350 MB (200 + 150), not 500 MB. In other words, the data store size is always limited by the available free hard-disk space.

Note: Ensure System Restore is up and running (Computer Management, right-clicking My Computer, and select Manage). You click the service and you can see if the srservice is set to automatic and if it is set to restart, or if it's stopped or disabled. You can also check via the command prompt by typing net start which give a list of all the services running. Also make sure System Restore is enabled on all the drives wanted (System Restore tab under the System Properties).

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Re:What did my kid do? WAG
Mar 30, 2004 8:43AM PST

Go into device manager and uninstall the drivers for your video card, then remove the monitor from within device manager. Reboot, the monitor should be easily picked up. Reinstall vid card drivers. Pray. Good luck.

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Re:Re:What did my kid do? WAG
Mar 31, 2004 8:51PM PST

How do you re-install the VID Card Drivers?

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How to install video card drivers.`
Mar 31, 2004 8:56PM PST

#1. Have the correct drivers at hand (CD, hard disk or diskette).
#2. Go into Device Manager and delete the video card.
#3. Reboot. Windwows will detect new hardware and ask you to let Windows search for it, or provide the file yourself. Answer you want to do it yourself and browse to the drivers from #1.

If your next question is "How do I find the correct drivers?" post what Device Manager says about the video card right now. But you might have it on a CD already.

Kees

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Re:Re:What did my kid do? WAG
Mar 31, 2004 9:31PM PST

How do you re-install the VID Card Drivers?

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Re:What did my kid do?
Apr 22, 2004 11:57PM PDT

Right click on an empty spot on your screen, Select properties, on the themes tab select windows xp. This should reset the desktop with the default xp desk top. Select apply. Now you can go in and customize your settings again. Now threaten to send him or her to military school. Hope this helps.