I'll write that you should always be prepared for the hard disk contents to just vanish. Out garden variety PC's are not reliable enough to even make some tea on time.
In short, if it's a one-time occurance, then you pick up and move on and shake your head then check the backup to make sure that what you can't lose is off the machine for that rainy day.
In last words, this is the current state of affairs. Not a perfect OS or system.
Bob is now making another CD with his photo collection...
XP Pro, P4 2ghz, 512MB DDR, notebook
Yesterday I followed these instructions from Kelly's XP corner to disable auto-run on CD:
Start/Run/Gpedit.msc/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System. Check your settings in the right pane, Turn Off Autoplay (double click).
I did this because even though I have all actions on CD-RW's autoplay tab in properties set to Take No Action, whenever I insert a multisession CD to add more files to it, it scans the CDR and opens a window showing it's contents, and I have to wait for it to finish doing that and close the window before I can use Nero to add more files.
This is the only change I made. Did not use computer for anything else except browsing. Later, when I turn it back on, I get this message at boot up.
Windows-Registry Recovery
One of the files containing the system's Registry had to be recovered by the use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was successful. OK.
Click OK, it boots up, my desktop is black, the Start menu is an odd color and font, and I have an icon in system tray with a balloon popup offering to take the Windows XP tour. A reboot brings up the same odd desktop. Did a system restore to the day before, and all seems ok. Event Viewer shows no errors. Anti-Virus and spyware scans all clean.
What could cause this, and should I be concerned? Is there anywhere else in Windows besides Event Viewer that might hold a clue as to what happened?
Would it matter that I made this auto-play change while logged in on my account, which is an administrator account, instead of as the main Administrator Account? And if it does, should I undo what I did for auto--play and redo it logged in as the Adminstrator?

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