Can't run explorer.exe - missing shdocvw.dll

Black Bloc

Acer Laptop
Windows Vista Home Edition

One of my sons has a curious and still unresolved problem. Once he logins in, the screen goes black, and a pop up declares that shdocvw.dll is missing - explorer.exe can't run, so no desktop.

I had a poke around and called up Task Manger (ctrl+shift+esc), ran CMD to get a console window and discovered that shdocvw.dll is missing from C:\windows\system32. I also got up IE, had a browse around the web and found that this .dll problem is known but solutions are flakey.

Most bizarrely his own profile seems locked out of administrator privileges so that that when I tried to copy the file across off a USB stick to the SYSTEM32 directory 'access is denied' came up. I also upgraded his browser to IE9 assuming that it might rebuilt explorer.exe, but no joy.

He had let his antivirus lapse. But when I ran AVG it picked up two pieces, one a piece of adware and the other something called 'hijacker.shopnav' - very reassuring. Once they were removed I ran AVG PC tuneup and it appeared to fix a huge of registry problems, but the system would still not run explorer.exe after rebooting. I am still leaning towards a user profile problem but since he can't get into superuser mode, it is not clear to me how to fix it without a reinstall.

Anyone any ideas?

I started using Macs myself in 2006 after twenty years in MS world. Yesterday reminded me why I had shifted.

ressem

It might just be UAC blocking you from copying files into the system32 folder. A bit awkward when you've no explorer.

Can you download Process explorer from
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062
and run it using task manager or a command prompt.

Then under 'File' choose run as administrator.

You want to run
'cmd'
but it should throw out an elevation prompt to run with higher permissions.
"Do you want to allow the following program to make changes" or some such.

This prompt should now allow you to manipulate the system folder.

If you've the CD...

In the command windows type
sfc /scannow

will look for system files and attempt to re-apply them from the CD.

Black Bloc

ressem wrote: »

It might just be UAC blocking you from copying files into the system32 folder. A bit awkward when you've no explorer.

Can you download Process explorer from
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062
and run it using task manager or a command prompt.

Then under 'File' choose run as administrator.

You want to run
'cmd'
but it should throw out an elevation prompt to run with higher permissions.
"Do you want to allow the following program to make changes" or some such.

This prompt should now allow you to manipulate the system folder.

If you've the CD...

In the command windows type
sfc /scannow

will look for system files and attempt to re-apply them from the CD.

Thanks.


I tried sfc with various switches yesterday but again 'access denied', need to be an administrator, etc. also tried icacls to manipulate permissions but to no avail.

I couldn't get up a cmd window with elevated permissions either.

He can't find the CD...

He brought it off into Dublin today to see if he can get it sorted. If that doesn't work, the Process explorer looks like a good next option.

FSL

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ Add a simple linux distro like Puppy linux boot from the USB and copy the dll to the windows/system32 folder

ressem

Black Bloc wrote: »

Thanks.


I tried sfc with various switches yesterday but again 'access denied', need to be an administrator, etc. also tried icacls to manipulate permissions but to no avail.

I couldn't get up a cmd window with elevated permissions either.

He can't find the CD...

He brought it off into Dublin today to see if he can get it sorted. If that doesn't work, the Process explorer looks like a good next option.

Yep, you need to elevate first, using process explorer, before running sfc or accessing protected folders.
Even administrator accounts needs to elevate, if UAC is enabled.

You could also try typing :
mmc compmgmt.msc into the task manager which should ask for elevation.

If that works that you can confirm whether your son's account is actually still an admin account, unlock the default administrator account (though I suspect that this will not help).