Ok.

My browser crashed on me, so I lost the whole damn post. Now I'm really getting mad. I'll start over.

Every time I run certain programs I get a message that tells me that the desktop.ini is corrupt and unreadable. It tells me to run chkdsk, which I did, and naturally failed to solve the problem. I have done a repair install of Windows. Nada. I reinstalled SP2. Still nothing. I have reinstalled my creative audigy 2 drivers. Nothing. I rolled back the drivers, which I think started the problem to begin with, and still bloody nothing. I upgraded to the latest drivers. Still the same error.

I'm about to kick this stupid thing. All I wanted to do was to get rid of the damn echo in my TV Wonder Pro card, which I think is a piece of junk. That and to sync the audio and video, which appears to be entirely too much too ask.

I have wasted most of the day on this and, as you can probably tell by reading My post, am completely fed up with it. I could really use some help on this.

I thank you in advance.

As that is a program specific error what are the specific programs?

Have you tried reinstalling them? A Repair Install of XP will not change any program settings with the exception of IE or OE.

It does it in several of them, including Spybot. Five or six of them by my last count. I will try to reinstall one and see what happens. I will report back.

It does it with several programs loading from the start menu or the system tray. You reload the program and it still does it. What on earth is going on? Now my machine won't shut down either.

What happens when you try to shut down? Some things to check here:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

If you don't mind backing up your data and reloading your programs I would suggest doing a Clean Install of XP.

I click on Start > Shutdown and it freezes. I don't want to reformat the damn thing if possible. I have a huge amount of information on it.

As a workaround to the shut down issue there is this:

In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then click “Change the way users log on or off.” Uncheck the box that says “Use the Welcome screen.” This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.

That also raises the question of a possibly corrupt account. Have you tried with another account?

If this is an XP issue and a Repair Install did not resolve it about the only next step is a Clean Install.

But again that error is generally an application error.

I would recommend manually removing a problem program and also using a Registry Cleaner RegSeeker afterwards before reinstalling. Reboot between removal and reinstall as well.

Uninstall Programs Manually

Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.

*

Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory.
*

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es, locate and delete the service.
*

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]

If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.

I already logon using the CTRL-ALT-DEL method because I am on a domain here. I will try another account and see if that causes similar problems and I'll report back. I already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program, but unfortunately that did nothing.

I figured it out. It turns out that as long as any other USB devices are connected besides my keyboard and mouse, I get that error. As soon as I unplug them the error goes away.

I am assuming that the motherboard is the guilty one.

Just to clarify: USB devices (other than keyboard and mouse) cause the desktop.ini is corrupt and unreadable error?

Is it just when the devices are present at startup? In other words can you use other USB devices while you are up and running?

Do you have any PS2 ports that you could move your mouse and keyboard to? Just wondering if they have anything to do with the problem

There is really very little data on the web concerning that error. This thread is the first find on Google and there are only a couple of others relating to particular programs.