Windows Explorer Pops Up after reboot

By the way, I should add that the 1st time I called the half-baked tech support in India, the 1st tech told me to disable the following item in msconfig - which had absolutely zero affect.

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe"

I could be wrong, but I don't think the culprit is located in msconfig utility. I think it's either buried somewhere in one of the registry keys or
it could be a dll process that's triggering the window to pop up. Again - if anyone has some helpful suggestions, I'm all ears.

OS = XP Pro SP 3

Yes, it is possible that the problem lies within the Startup programs. Use MSconfig or regedit and look carefully. Look for something that involves the Explorer or Winlogin.

Do a google search on your issue as this is a common issue not related to TrueImageHome.

If you wish to do a repair install on TrueImage Home,you can do that also but I do not believe that will solve your issue. There is an unwanted entry in the registry.

Start the downloaded installer program again and choose the install/repair option.

GroverH,

As I have previously stated, I already looked in msconfig. The ONLY two entries related to ATI are the the that I mentioned in my original post above and "True Image Monitor" located in "C:\Program Files\ATI Home 2010". NO OTHER entries in msconfig are related to True Image program. I know this for fact. I keep my entries in msconfig very tidy and I know which ones are necessary for my PC and which ones are not.

As for the registry - I've looked through the HKLM & HKCU hives. The run keys contain identical values as shown in msconfig - no other suspicious entries exist. If the culprit lies in the registry, then it is elsewhere. I suspect (as I stated before) that it could be a dll process that's triggering the window to pop up.

This is not a downloaded installer - I bought the retail boxed version and installed from the CD that came with it. Regardless of whether it was downloaded or installed from the CD, it should matter not.

I have already tried the repair before posting - it had absolutely zero affect.

For me the problem started the day that I installed the program. You can claim that it is a "common issue" - common to who??
This problem started the day that I installed ATI Home 2010. I have never once in my life had this problem crop up when installing/ upgrading a program. So it is specific to ATI Home 2010 in this situation. As for suggestion of "Googling" my issue - I don't have the time or inclination to wade through pages and pages of irrelevant links that do not apply to ATI Home 2010. If this forum cannot provide some plausible explanation - then what purpose does it serve? I came here because this is a support forum - not a "Google" it yourself forum.

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GroverH wrote:

Yes, it is possible that the problem lies within the Startup programs. Use MSconfig or regedit and look carefully. Look for something that involves the Explorer or Winlogin.

Do a google search on your issue as this is a common issue not related to TrueImageHome.

If you wish to do a repair install on TrueImage Home,you can do that also but I do not believe that will solve your issue. There is an unwanted entry in the registry.

Start the downloaded installer program again and choose the install/repair option.

John,

I can understand your frustration with such a nuisance problem. The forum is manned by volunteers and support will sometimes jump in but there can be a wait.

My assistance is merely my desire to help you resolve your issues without having to wait on support. They do not promise to respond to every posting.. From your last posting, it appears you are quite knowledgeable with computers and my compliments to you. You already know the importance of backups so you will feel comfortable booting from the TI Rescue CD and restoring your system partition back to what it was prior to upgrading to 2010. But before that may be necessary, a couple thoughts.

1. As I stated before, this may not relate to Acronis. The install program uses a windows installer which may have malfunctioned and the line causing all the issues will have no relation to TrueImage.. Any entry in the Run areas of the registry may possibly be under a Rundll.exe entry. Or, it could be under the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
under the Desktop or similar entries. If none of the above is of assistance, some google links at at the end of the posting. A couple more suggestions.

1. Un-iinstall the current TrueImage and then use your System Restore (if available) or a prior TrueImage backup to put your registry (or your system) back to what it was prior to the Trueimage upgrade install.

2. Suggest you NOT install 7046 overtop any prior version of TrueImage. Also temporarily disable your anti-virus and malware protection before the 7046 ire-install.

3. If installing a newer version, create a new TI Rescue/Recovery CD after your new install.

Listed below are some additional google links which may be of help but you may find the above of more benefit.

Good luck.
Grover
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Extracts below from Google:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/78712-45-windows-explorer-starts-logo…

"I had exactly the same problem after upgrading from vista to win7 (both premium). Every time I logged in no matter with which user account, windows explorer would start without being prompted. After a lot of searching for autostart entries in ms-config and startup folders etc etc, I finally located the fault in the registry. I browsed to the following key:

Hkeylocalmachine\Software\microsoft\windowsNT\winlogon\userinit

There was an appended value that somehow had gotten on there.

The value should have been c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe HOWEVER, it was c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,c:\windows\ezshellexplorer (or something like that - can't remember exactly)

Anyway, what i did was to modify the value of userinit to remove everything after the comma (,) so, the final value of this key was c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe

I rebooted and after that explorer never opened up again following logon. Dont know how this key got corrupted but this worked for me. Good look. "

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Posting #3
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-95/explorer-opens-hard-drive-w…

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Hello all,

Thank you very much for your posts and your feedback.

Grover,

Thank you so much for your kind assistance!

John,

I will do my best to assist you.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused by our Support team. I could not find any cases for your Acronis account, if you would be kind enough to give me the case number so that I can forward this issue to our Management team in order to avoid this from happening in the future.

Unfortunately this issue will require further investigation because as Grover wrote, I was thinking along the same lines, to check this registry strong for any strange keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Looking forward to hearing from you so that I can continue assisting you.

Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Thank you.

GroverH, first of all - my apologies for sounding so terse. I guess I was looking for a more specific/ precise answer and hearing "google it" didn't sit right with me. But apparently, this problem isn't a quick solve and I should have been more patient. The 1st time I called tech support and that half-baked tech guy told me to disable the item in msconfig.... I should have known better than to belief that guy. I hung up thinking the problem was solved and when I rebooted the system, the window still popped up. It really P*sses me off that their tech support would give such flippant responses without any merit. The guy wasted my time and the 2nd time I called tech support, I wasted another hour trying this & that....

So yes I'm a tad bit annoyed and frustrated to say the least.

I have investigated all the links you gave me in your posting. Based on those threads you pointed to, I have looked in the registry key: HKLM\Software\microsoft\windowsNT\winlogon\userinit
I don't see anything out of whack.

In your reference to post #3, there was a MSKB article mentioned: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q228502
Again - NOTHING there applies to my situation. I do not see any key that says "DesktopProcess"

As for your suggestion of temporarily disabling anti-virus and malware protection before reinstalling the program - been there, done that. No joy. And I've been using software long enough to know that I need to a clean installation when upgrading from one major version to another. So to answer your question, I made sure my previous version was fully removed or uninstalled before I installing ATI Home 2010.

And finally, the run key has been mentioned a couple of different times now. Just to be absolutely clear, I cannot find anything unusual in the run keys. I keep saying this but you guys don't believe me. So I've posted a screenshot of the run keys in both the HKLM and HKCU hives as proof.

http://www.picturedumper.com/picture/20100817/b8603bd204/run-keys.PNG

Anton, I will send you the case ID # via PM.

Well that's very odd. Anton, I don't even see a link under your name for the PM. Have you by chance disabled the PM option in your profile??

I would doublecheck that all the paths in the Run keys (HKLM\...\Run and HKCU\...Run are enclosed in "" if the path includes a folder with a space in its name.

You could also try Sysinternal's Autoruns, which lists everything set to run at startup, it may be a path in one of those.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

Unbelieveable - you finally solved it JRosenfeld! One of the values contained in the run key did not have the quotation wrapped around the path.

C:\Program Files\Acronis True Image Home 2010\TrueImageMonitor.exe

So once I wrapped it quotes, that took care of the problem. I was very frustrated over this problem and can't believe it was simple as wrapping the paths in quotes. Thanks very much JRosenfeld.

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JRosenfeld wrote:

I would doublecheck that all the paths in the Run keys (HKLM\...\Run and HKCU\...Run are enclosed in "" if the path includes a folder with a space in its name.

When attachments are needed, the attachments can be easily uploaded from within your posting to the Acronis website as per these procedures.

JRosenfield,

A very nice catch. Congratulations.

John,

Glad you got it resolved. Look again at your last picture attachment. It shows several of your startup programs having spaces and not enclosed in quotes. Maybe some of these are not starting properly. I don't know--just calling it to your attention.

Yes I noticed that as well Grover. Usually, wrapping the full path in quotation marks is necessary if there's a space in the path.
(BTW, this rule also applies when using the DOS shell and working with paths containing spaces -- I use Robocopy quite often). I never in my wildest imagination thought it applies to the registry run key - specifically causing the Windows Explorer window to pop up.

Some of the programs I've been using have been working just fine - I have no idea why it works the way it does despite the absence of the quotation marks. They load up as expected upon every reboot or system start up - which I know for because it's listed in the task manager. At any rate, I'm very glad to put this to rest - I was absolutely irritated with the so-called tech support in India and until JRosenfeld posted, I was beginning to think I was going to need a degree from Harvard to get this solved! :)

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GroverH wrote:

Glad you got it resolved. Look again at your last picture attachment. It shows several of your startup programs having spaces and not enclosed in quotes. Maybe some of these are not starting properly. I don't know--just calling it to your attention.