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The other day while removing a virus from a friends computer I was told to delete two files out of the C:\Windows folder. Those files were Win and System. I believe they were configuration settings but I'm not positive. When I rebooted the mouse pointer was gone, the screene resolution was changed, the background was changed and the color scheme was changed from 256 to 16. As for the mouse I checked to see why it wasn't working and it said vmouse.VXD was missing so it could not load the driver. System restore was off during the virus removal so I cant just turn back the clock. Let me know what to do fast because having no mouse is quite difficult. THANKS
Apparently you've deleted system.ini & win.ini, which would certainly cause the problems you've described.
You were 'told' to do this?
Try entering from the run dialog
scanreg /restore
- this will allow you to choose a previous version of the registry, and will restore those missing files as well.
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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Thanks for the suggestion I'll give it a try. And yes in the virus removal norton's web page said to delete Win.ini and System.ini. It said the system would regenerate them upon the next startup. Thanks again for your suggestion.
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Ok, well, it seems that the system didn't - possibly because System Restore was disabled. You might want to check and see if they exist.
They're just text files, which cannot be infected, although they can be modified to load malware etc, or else become corrupted. They contain a number of Windows settings, including display info.
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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scanreg /restore does just that, it restores a previous registry point. It does not bring back deleted files.
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I see
Then I gather M$ somehow has it wrong?
"Files that Windows Registry Checker backs up include System.dat, User.dat, System.ini, and Win.ini."
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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I agree that the scanreg.exe will backup the system.ini and win.ini files but nowhere on that page does it say that scanreg /restore will replace them. sytem.ini and win.ini are not really cosidered registry files. I still stand by my post that scanreg /restore won't replace them.
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Well I stand corrected. I just wrote an extra line in the systen.ini and win.ini file saved them then restored from a previous point. The text I wrote was gone.
You are correct Jboy. Sorry about the mis-information.
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No problem - and it makes sense for those to conform with what's in the registry.
For a fact, there are those who prescribe that fix for everything from various missing files to a corrupted partition table. It's a great tool (as a former 95 user, don't I know it) but not for everything.
Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience
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If you want to resolve for yourself exactly what is being backed up into the SCANREG backup files, why don't you just look!
Use "My Computer", with hidden files and folders set viewable in Folder Options, to open the C:\Windows\SYSBCKUP folder, select one of your rb00#.cab files and Open it.
You can then copy or Extract any of the backed up files to look at or use, without having to "restore" the whole set. This is the best way to replace a missing WIN.INI or SYSTEM.INI file. Does not restore others like the Registry which might trash some install or uninstall you just did. But this is a little complicated to explain to users who don't know about viewing hidden files and folders and CAB files.
If you look at the C:\Windows\SCANREG.INI file with NotePade, you might learn a little more useful information about what scanreg can do for you.
It has an option to change the number of backups it keeps. (Default=5)
You can change where it keeps the backups.
And you have the option of saving other System files in the backup if you have some reason to.
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Hello,
Yes, backing up other files, could be a life saver sometimes. Don't we all know that one :-)
And also, to talk about extracting a system.ini, and a win.ini If for some reason, yes it does and has happened, the ones in the registry backups at
c:\windows\sysbckup
get corrupted. You also can extract them, from a system restore point. I don't mean to do a system restore. But, to just extract the needed files. Your restore dates, go back, just a little further than the registry backups ;-)Another way, to open that hidden folder, with out showing hidden folders is;
Start..Run..Type;
sysbckup
Press Enter, or click OK And there it will be ;-)OoOo, another little shortcut :-)
Start..Run..type;
explorer c:\windows\sysbckup\rb001.cab
Press Enter, or click OKNow you should see those two files in question. Also, type the same thing, but change the number. For example, 000, 001, 002, 003, 004, 005 Not all of those numbers will work. But, you get the idea.
Just a little insight. Hope it's useful
CrazyOne
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