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I Need a REAL Geek! HELP!

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Started 1 month ago by Dragonlair
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Dragonlair

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I mentioned before of losing some of my games (and one utility) with a username change on my PC. One odd result of this entire mess is ONE folder that I see in Windows Explorer but the system insists it's not there.

I can see it but if I try to open it, I get a message that it's not there and maybe it's on a removable drive (it's not). If I try to look at the security to get at it that way, I'm told it's either not available or cannot be displayed.

Does anybody have any idea how to get rid of this folder?????

Posted 1 month ago #
HappyPerson

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First, try "right-clicking" on the folder (without opening it), then choosing the "delete" option to get rid of it that way.

Second, "right-click" on the folder, then click on the "properties" option to see the name and path for this file - you may be able to find it that way.

Third, once you know the file's name, type the name into the "search box" from the start menu (it should come up in the top portion of your start menu), then "right-click" on it, choose "delete" option, to remove it.

Hope this helps. That's all I can think of for now.

Posted 1 month ago #
midori

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This is a way-simple (and probably silly) suggestion, but have you rebooted since you've seen the folder? It could be what I call a "phantom folder" left over from an uninstall that rebooting gets rid of.

Plus, just curious why you want to get rid of it. Are you sure it's not a system folder that you're not supposed to mess with?

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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Happy Person - except for the search idea, I have tried to delete it. I get an error that it can't find it, even when I right click on the item in Explorer! I'll try search but I don't have much hope that will help.

Midori - yes, I did reboot. It's not a system folder. In fact we were able to delete the contents of it but not the folder! It's involved with the minorly corrupted (now removed) original user. It was within the "Favorites" folder of C:\Users\<username>\. We copied it out to save it when we were changing users. It nowhere near the users or system folders. It's currently in a folder called C:\Activity\ZZnoback\zzz\. You can't get much more non-system than that!

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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You've lost stuff with a username change? Do you mean a opening a new account? All the software of the new accounts is still there, just many of the desktop icons don't cross over. I assume that's not what you mean, though. Just changing the username shouldn't have done that. I didn't see the old thread, and am not sure what it was just by scanning through your posting list. What did you actually do?

Anyway, I think Midori's suggestion is worth a try. She's right, that frequently happens. Also, what's the name of the folder? That might gives us a big clue.

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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Happy Person - I just tried the search idea. It found it! However, same result. Try to delete it and it says it can't find it! It's got an entry in the directory table but that's it. What I want to know is how to get that pointer out of the table!

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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Watcher13,

What I did was (using a "third party" admin use), I created a new user, copied the profile from the old user to the new user. The old user was deleted and that's probably where most of the problems occurred. I lost the licensing to 27 Games and 1 Utility from GOTD. I also lost the licensing to 7 Alawar GameBox monthly freebies. I lost PCStitch Standard and Plastic Canvas Design Studio but I got new unlock codes for that. I've had 3 other games that needed (or still need) to be "fixed" and I have to re-install StitchCraft Demo because the files' security is mixed up.

I have had to re-do all the system and application cusomizations of almost every thing (including Word and Excel).

The old user was removed because it was corrupted and I had hoped to re-create it and copy everything back to keep the old name. It turned out that even before a copy, the new user with the old name had the same problems as the old version. I have no idea why!

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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Just saw your post. Was writing when you were writing. Obviously, left over from some software. I assume you searched ZZnoback. I did and didn't see anything. Try this:

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

Unlocker works great for me when I want to delete something and don't want to jump through all the Windows hoops of overcoming permissions. If it doesn't show you any "locking handles" use the delete option from the drop down menu. You'll have to reboot to see if that's effective, though.

Still, never heard of losing software by changing user accounts. Should all still be there in your Program Menu, but maybe I'll have to file that under "learn something new everyday", in which case, my apologies. If you mean losing GOTDs though, that probably would be the case as many burrow done enough to assign the registration to the specific user, not the machine. You might be able, however, to find the old registration file(s) in the User folder under the old username, if you didn't delete it. If that doesn't make sense, I can explain further.

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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Ah, we're writing at the same time, again. Sorry to say, that isn't surprising. If you're using Vista, you'll want to check your appdata folders under the old name (in the Users folder, of course) to see if there's any folders with the name of the programs you lost. And if that data's not corrupted and is recoverable. Although, I don't know if just copying the folders into AppData under the new username will restore the functionality. Might be worth a try. Don't know if it's the same under XP, but look under any folders under the old username if it doesn't have an AppData folder.

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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The software is still there. What's missing is the licensing. It's back to trial versions. It's probably a registry situation what happened there. Alawar's games are the worst. I lost the full access to 28 out of 32 Alawar games. Why 3 of the 4 stayed, I don't know. The 4th was "Strike Ball 2 Deluxe" which is till the freebie of the month.

The ENTIRE contents (including Hidden and System files) was copied from the old user to the new user. That includes all of Appdata. That's why I didn't lose more! All of my Kaser games are absolutely fine!

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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Yep, registry seem like the guess. If I can figure out where that stuff is hived, I'll post. Try unlocker. Have you searched the registry under the old username?

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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Watcher,

I downloaded the unlocker. It may not work since this is not a case of the file being locked up by another user but it might help. I'll give it a check through Avria and give it a try. I'll let you know if it works.

thanks!

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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I've had it's delete function delete stuff that MS won't let you. So it's worth a try. As I say, though, the delete function requires a reboot.

Posted 1 month ago #
HappyPerson

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Here's another suggestion - try going to the "registry editor". Type "regedit" in the search box of Windows startup, and it should pop up in the blank "program area" of startup. Left-click on the "regedit" link.

Within "regedit", go to the "file" option from the top-page menu. Choose the "edit" sub-option under "file", and do a "search" with the file name to find any and all entries relating to this one particular folder.

This should bring up any remnants for you to "successfully delete", hopefully.

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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Watcher13's "Unblocker" utility worked! He's a life saver! LOL I check it with Avira before install and the install files before use. It came out clean. It's only a 453 Kb install. That's a tiny thing. I did tell it NOT to put in the ebay shortcut. All freebies try to talk you into things now. I still have to play with it to tell it NOT to come up at boot time. I only want it available when I need it!

It said the folder wasn't blocked but it could still help. It asked what I wanted to do and I selected "Delete". I went away but still showed on the left side. When I hit F5, it disappeared! I then deleted the parent folder that I was trying to delete in the first place "zzz" is no more!

Happy, that's an idea to possibly try but I do not like the idea of playing with the registry if I can avoid it. It wasn't a f file that was "non-existant", it was a folder. I was able to delete the contents earlier, just not the folder itself.

I'm a happy camper now!

Posted 1 month ago #
HappyPerson

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I used the word "file", but meant to say "folder." I'm happy it worked for you, Dragonlair. I tried also to download the "unlocker" program, but (sadly) it is not yet compatible with Vista 64-bit (boo-hoo) - the developer is working on it though :)

Again, I'm very happy that your problem is solved. Way to go, Watcher.

Posted 1 month ago #
watcher13

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asldrierofjoirewepweofweorweoiweiofweoiweiweioweofieoweoifweiofioweowirfweiofklfweo

Oops, sorry. My head got so swollen from the praise that I couldn't hold it up and it thumped the keyboard.

Seriously, glad I could help. I find it a pretty useful program, especially with some of the arcane security features built into Vista. And, if they get corrupted, watch out! Sorry about the ebay thing. I downloaded it months ago and must have forgotten, or that's a new addition. Also forgot to mention about the Unlocker Assistant, the startup program. Went back and checked and the developer says you can deselect during the install, so you might want to reinstall. If the developer's giving the straight dope, you may have missed the option not to install that. Sounds familiar, but I'm getting old and the months start to run together. LOL.

Thanks for the F5 thing. Thought a reboot was required. Learn something new every day!

Once I get back to work, I need to send that good person a donation.

Posted 1 month ago #
Dragonlair

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I skipped the ebay thing but let the assistant install. There's a notification icon with an option to turn OFF at startup. I'll do that when I document the thing in my "log". As long as it doesn't start at boot time, I'm happy with keeping it. It's so tiny. Worst case - uninstall when not needed and re-install when needed!

Thanks for the help.

Posted 1 month ago #

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