Definitely A Windows Update Problem...

[calliopes_pen]

It's definitely a Windows Update mess, because I've discovered that it has also messed up things in Outlook Express. Formerly, you could just look in the e-mails and see everything perfectly fine. Now? Well, looks like any picture (for example, of cookies from Saralyn's Cookies since I get updates from there) has been turned into numerous attachments. One for the picture of the cookies, one for the picture of the logo, one an htm file, and one a notepad file.

So things I've noticed wrong so far:
-The address bar is missing, and will not come back even when I use the steps I've found that are supposed to bring it back.
-The Outlook Express strangeness I've just described.
-The thing Dad mentioned, of the Control Panel not working if you're using the Classic Start menu option.

There may be more, but that's just what we've noticed so far. Any ideas on how to fix this? I'm currently using IE 6 for Windows XP (service pack 3). Should I install 7, or uninstall 6 and then reinstall? Or would that make things even worse?

Dad says he tried to go back, but it won't let him go back any earlier than this morning at 6:30 AM.

Comments

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

See, this is why I never run Windows Updates...

[calliopes_pen]

I thought it had been turned off--Dad may have told it to allow updates at one point, when he thought it was needed. In the last couple of days, at least.

Over on Microsoft Updates, it does say that one was allowed yesterday. This is actually why I've never liked Microsoft Updates.

[wabbitseason.livejournal.com]

Do you have any registry checker on your computer? (i.e. Registry Mechanic) Maybe it could see what had changed?

[calliopes_pen]

No, apparently not. I checked around for a while and tried what I could, and then finally just let Dad put IE 7 in. So far, I hate all the tabs, little extra things, and the new spot for the address bar--but it's better than not having an address bar at all.

Maybe eventually we can get it to go back a few days and fix the other things.

[sherlock2040.livejournal.com]

Not a solution but it might be worth switching to Firefox (browser) and Thunderbird (e-mail thingy). They're not going to be tied in to Windows Updates and are ultimately more secure.

[evilawyer-fic.livejournal.com]

I recently had to allow one Windows update to make OpenOffice compatible with Word and I was terrified! Not that it will fix things, but I always use Firefox as my Internet browser --- when I last tried to use Internet Explorer, it also did something crappy to my old computer.