What have I done now?!

D

Doctor Varney

Cave dwelling Luddite
I have just been trying to organise my VSTs and create shortcuts on my start menu. Now All Programs is 'empty' when I hover over the link on the start menu, plus all my desktop items have disappeared. Windows XP.

What can I do about this (please don't say get a Mac) !?

Thanks
 
Mac?

With your computer history I was going to suggest you take up stamp collecting!

Can't help on this one. On my set up, VSTs show up on a special list within my DAW, not on the All Programmes list.
 
Doctor Varney said:
What can I do about this...!?
Click to expand...

Quit while you can....


There people who can come within 15 feet of a computer, and the damn thing will immediately develop issues.
Now that may sound like some myth....but in the years I've been working IT, I can state that is a true fact.

Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
 
miroslav said:
Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
Click to expand...

I've got a mate who sometimes helps me on live mixing jobs. He's pretty handy, and knows what he is doing . . . but somehow he always seems to make things not work. So I'm kinda leaning towards this 'aura' thing.
 
miroslav said:
Quit while you can....


There people who can come within 15 feet of a computer, and the damn thing will immediately develop issues.
Now that may sound like some myth....but in the years I've been working IT, I can state that is a true fact.

Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
Click to expand...

I've never encountered it with computers but my wife cannot wear a watch. Put one on her and within 24 hours it's either stopped entirely or running hugely fast or slow. Take it off her and it goes back to normal.
 
miroslav said:
Quit while you can....


There people who can come within 15 feet of a computer, and the damn thing will immediately develop issues.
Now that may sound like some myth....but in the years I've been working IT, I can state that is a true fact.

Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
Click to expand...

This may be too obsolete for you but back in the days of IBM MicroChannel had a user with WordPerfect who selected a 'Genius' display (a huge... for the time... monochrome display that could be used landscape or portrait) just to see what it would do. The only way to fix it was to set up his machine next to a known good box and go step by step through the keyboard shortcuts so as to select the correct monitor blindly. It worked.

I don't recall having to help him again. He learned his lesson.
 
miroslav said:
Quit while you can....


There people who can come within 15 feet of a computer, and the damn thing will immediately develop issues.
Now that may sound like some myth....but in the years I've been working IT, I can state that is a true fact.

Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
Click to expand...

I am thinking along the lines of: go to the nearest crystal shop and buy 4 magic crystals, tell the seller what you need to fix in the computer, place the crystals within the room in locations that the crystal seller recommends.

Seriously I have no idea how you managed to do this, I also have no idea why you wanted to: organise my VSTs and create shortcuts on my start menu. You open the VST's within other programs?

To fix the program list: try going into control panel > add or remove programs. Did the list populate, meaning did the programs show up on the program list? If so the programs are still installed.

When you go back to the start menu > all programs, does any program appear?

Alan.
 
Also maybe you could system restore to an earlier date? When you hover over the start menu do any of the windows installed programs appear? can you get to: all programs > Accessories >system tools > system restore

alan
 
miroslav said:
Quit while you can....


There people who can come within 15 feet of a computer, and the damn thing will immediately develop issues.
Now that may sound like some myth....but in the years I've been working IT, I can state that is a true fact.

Not sure if it's some kind of negative "aura " that they emit, but I've known several people who've managed to kill an endless number of computers just by trying to use them.
Click to expand...

Haha, funny you say this because this is my wife.

It comes from not knowing how to "massage" a piece of technology into doing your bidding. All technology is buggy and knowing what and what not to do to engage those bugs is part of the learning process. I myself have been exposed to computers since I was six. I crashed my first computer at age nine. Computers and I understand each other. I just wish my wife understood me how my computer does! (Just kidding!)

My wife? She's one of those types that thinks computers should just WORK infallibly. She's also the type who will open a million windows, click away without reading, unknowingly install things, and then wonder why it all crashes. And then, of course, all computers are shit and the going mantra is "WHY ME???"

Computers are like children. That listen. But sometimes they listen a little too well.

Cheers :)
 
At this stage you're pretty much saying "I've clicked on/dragged/deleted the wrong thing. Can anyone guess how?"

You're not computer savvy Varney. It's not an aura, or sods law, or bad luck, or a 'damned machine'.
Take a course or move on, is my advice. :)

I mean that in the nicest possible way.
 
My mom manages to kill any type of printer she has within 100 sheets of paper. Doesn't matter if its the "free" one that comes with a new computer, or a better one (I've given her and bought her several different ones), they usually stop printing legibly before or soon after the first ink replacement.

Dr Varney - the 'system restore' option is probably your best bet, assuming you have a restore point not too old. In the future, you can create a new one of these before installing any new software or mucking around with files.
Not sure what you were trying to do with your VSTs. They are in a folder named 'VST Plugins' in the programs subdirectory in my Win7 machine. Not sure why you would want shortcuts to them on your desktop ... but I'm guessing you accidently dragged your desktop icons to a folder somewhere rather than vice-versa.
 
Definitely try the System Restore rout. There is really no way for anybody to let you know what you did, but System Restore (assuming it is enabled - it should be) is a savior. Just pick the most recent date that you knew everything was working properly. It takes a bit of time, but it should work.
 
Steenamaroo said:
It's not an aura....
Click to expand...

Naaaa man...there really IS an "aura" we all emit.
I've seen it demonstrated....and it's different for each person
It's some kind of electro-magnetic thing...and I am of the belief that some people just put out negative waves that have a bad effect on electronics. :D

 
I kind of expected these reactions - but honestly, I'm not offended. In fact, some your posts really made me laugh - especially the bit about stamp collecting and crystals. It's true, I am the kiss of death to computers. I have used computers since 1993 and had equal doses of pleasure and pain - but with more than most users' fair share of disasters, too.

It's not like I'm left without a machine to work on. This was just a secondary computer I was testing for DAW purposes.

witzendoz said:
Seriously I have no idea how you managed to do this, I also have no idea why you wanted to: organise my VSTs and create shortcuts on my start menu. You open the VST's within other programs?
Click to expand...

I merely wanted to place a shortcut to the containing folder for my VSTs on the Start Menu, alongside the My Computer and Documents folders for easy access. I wasn't intending to run them individually from the Start Menu.

I think I know what might have happened. I installed a second drive for project data, so the only folders I really needed on my system drive were WINDOWS, PROGRAM FILES & VST PLUGINS. This meant the user/ shared document folders on C: were superfluous. So I set the view properties of these folders to 'hidden'. Now I'm thinking these folders contain Start Menu information for each user, so perhaps that's why the All Programs menu won't appear? If that is the case, then I can probably undo that. If not, then I've seriously borked something.
 
Doctor Varney said:
I merely wanted to place a shortcut to the containing folder for my VSTs on the Start Menu, alongside the My Computer and Documents folders for easy access. I wasn't intending to run them individually from the Start Menu..
Click to expand...


That's the puzzling thing....why would you need "easy access" to them in the start menu?
Most plugs are accessed from within your DAW app, and the DAW app(s) keeps track of, and organizes them, once you install them, (if they are put in the proper folders to begin with, where the DAW app(s) can locate them).

Yeah, there are some "plugs" that can also run standalone, but most are accessible primarily from the DAW app.

I guess the point is that some stuff you should just leave be and let the computer handle it.
Maybe you're one of those people who just likes to reconfigure things beyond any real need to reconfigure them (IOW...if it ain't broke, stop trying to fix it)...and that's why you get into so much computer trouble...? :)
 
miroslav said:
That's the puzzling thing....why would you need "easy access" to them in the start menu?
Click to expand...

Because in the past I have ended up with VSTs all over the place. In Steinberg folders, different application folders... I can't recall all the nooks and crannies they end up in. I was led to understand you can amass your plugins in one location and organise them in sub-folders, in ways that make sense to you. I want to keep a consistent track of where 3rd party plugins are placed when I download and unzip them. It was probably unnecessary to place shortcuts on the Start Menu but I don't see how this could cause a problem, as I have done this in the past with other types of file I intended to export. It makes backing up easy: Click the folder at any time to copy the contents to an external drive or writable media.

Most plugs are accessed from within your DAW app, and the DAW app(s) keeps track of, and organizes them, once you install them, (if they are put in the proper folders to begin with, where the DAW app(s) can locate them).
Click to expand...

My DAW application can always find them regardless but you need to tell the application where to look for new additions.

Yeah, there are some "plugs" that can also run standalone, but most are accessible primarily from the DAW app.
Click to expand...

Those types are usually given start menu entries when you install them. This wasn't what I was trying to do though.

I guess the point is that some stuff you should just leave be and let the computer handle it.
Maybe you're one of those people who just likes to reconfigure things beyond any real need to reconfigure them (IOW...if it ain't broke, stop trying to fix it)...and that's why you get into so much computer trouble...? :)
Click to expand...

I think you're absolutely right. I think I am one of 'those people'. Its a psychological/ personality flaw which I'll need to address if I stand any chance of learning from these mistakes. I have strong compulsions to organise things in ways most would consider extreme. I've been told my mind uses it as a coping mechanism for dealing with deeper issues in my life, which I have either yet to identify or am frightened to tackle head on.

To this end, I also edit my posts on forums and Facebook if I notice a single typo or apostrophe out of place.
 
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