oneinchwunda

Last night I shut down my computer as normal. However, after about 5 minutes I realised it still hadn't shut down. I looked over and saw it was STILL saying "Shutting Down Computer" (or w/e words to that effect). I wait a few more minutes, then grow impatient, so I hold down the Power Off switch on the front of my case for 3 seconds, and I turn it off manually.

I used it this morning fine, with no problems at all, and I turn it off as normal. I come to turn it back on now, and first of all, it takes a relatively long time to start up. The first thing I notice is that, after the "Welcome" screen, it said "Preparing your desktop". It did this for about a minute then went to a black screen, where I could only see my mouse. I press Ctrl+Alt+Del and bring up task manager. Using Task Manager, I find explorer.exe and run it.

The computer is beginning to look like normal again, except there are no gadgets, almost all of my shortcuts on the desktop and sidebar have disappeared and the desktop background is completely black. Going into C: drive I check that everything is there and nothing has been deleted. My "startup" folder is empty however, and everything has been set to default settings.

I'm on Windows 7 Home Premium. Any help is appreciated.

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pantstofry

I don't want to be the asshole that says "lol windows" in your thread but

oshit

no, sorry for not really contributing, but when I had XP I used to have a very similar thing happen and kinda just left it and accepted it, I'm kinda interested to see the solution as well.

okbai

GhostHands

I have a similar issue with Windows 7 at work, only it affects just shortcuts pasted to the desktop. It does some kind of automated clean up (which you cannot turn off for this particular problem) and deletes my shortcuts. Now I have to put all my shortcuts into a folder on the desktop and then copy paste them when they disappear. I guess my anecdote doesn't help you solve your problem, but I thought I share in your frustration over Windows 7.

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beasTer

The problem is that you turned off your computer before it was ready. It often takes longer to turn off your PC after updates have been applied or system settings have changed in some way, and it is trying to save and possibly back up the information.

Dunno what to do to fix whatever happened, but in the future just let it power itself down... it will finish eventually.

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http://steamcommunity.com/id/easterbenny

GhostHands

That's what she said. Well, I guess I have to stop powering off my comp at work before it's done; I am so impatient with computers, I just want them to compute faster and have the ability to run 6-8 applications/programs at once while I'm surfing the web and torrenting 200 episodes of Modern Marvels and playing video games.

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Voodoo

ohsnap

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My YouTube Channel

HBK

Use a hammer, hammers can fix everything.

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MoleMania

If it's not what Pants or Ghost said, you could try running a virus scan to see if you've got computer AIDS.

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abc

Get a gaming computer & you're sorted

Wait did you get a new computer in the end?




To oneinch, the only thing I can think of is windows activation. On vista & XP when it thinks it's an illegal copy it functions fine but does a few things intended to annoy - for example the black desktop.

Right click "computer" > properties > scroll down to bottom & look at the "windows activation" bit. Windows can & does unactivate itself in certain scenarios, sometimes seemingly at complete random times however more often that not when security updates fail.

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"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

GhostHands

Not yet...money is tight right now but I intend on doing it one of these days.

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pantstofry

I didn't even say anything, I just said i had the same problem before i got a mac lul, never fixed it

abc

LOL JK, you have an E9x M3 & have an M-sport 130i on your wish list

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"I don't like new Linkin Park, I don't like old Linkin Park... I JUST LIKE LINKIN PARK"

COD owner - COD expansion pack owner - COD2 owner - COD2: BRO player - COD3 owner - COD4 owner - COD:WaW owner - COD: MW2 owner - COD: BO owner

This is getting repetitive.

GhostHands

I'm American...forgive me. I have all kinds of toys, but find myself wanting more toys. Besides, the E90 is not my toy, but the comp is.

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oneinchwunda

Windows is activated.
No updates etc. were installed.
No system settings etc. were changed.
The first time I booted the computer after the manual shutdown, it worked fine. The second time I had the problem.

Problem was resolved after a re-boot, but has occured once again since.

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Fandom Ruck

Try cleaning the Windows Registry & other junk with CCleaner.

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