Windows TEMP Environment Behaving Strangely

[MRivers]

[Edited from the original posting]

I see this has been looked at a couple of times since I posted it, so I didn't want to delete it after (I hope) solving the problem. It's curious enough so that it might be applicable to someone else some day. See my solution at the end of the descrption of the problem.

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I'm not sure what better way to describe this.

I have what I assume is a pretty standard Windows 2000 Professional installation. It came on the computer and I don't fool with it any more than I need to.

I picked up a virus last week, and think I've sufficiently cleaned it, but maybe not. Possibly coincident with the virus (or maybe not)  I encountered a problem with Mozilla Thunderbird (my mail program of choice). What I finally traced this to was that when the program needed to write a temporary file TMP to the temporary directory as set in the Windows environment (c:\winnt\temp), instead of aiming for c:\winnt\temp, it was trying to write to c:\[the directory in which the program is installed\\winnt\temp - in other words, it was appending the TMP directory to the program's installed (and starting) directory.

I confirmed (and temporarily fixed) Thunderbird by creating the directory that it wanted to use.

Then, today, I tried to update another program. The installer wouldn't run. After downloading a few different copies (from different sources) and being reasonably confident that I had a good veresion, I recalled this TMP issue. Seeing as how many installers write temporary files, I tried creating the directory c:\[directory from which I was running the installer]\winnt\temp and that made it work.

From this, I concluded that there's something wrong with Windows. It's not going back to the root when looking for the temporary TMP directory set in the environment. but rather, it's appending that to the path where the program is running.

Anyone got a clue as to how I can straighten this out?
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What I did was go to the Windows Control Panel, open up the Environment window, and changed the path for the TMP environment variable to something else, saved it, then changed it back to what it's supposed to be. I deleted the "temporary" directories that I created to fix the problems, tried the programs again, and they indeed seem to be working as normal.

I suspect that something in the registry got changed. I wonder how long it will take me to find out what ELSE got changed.

[Gizmo73]

Something in the registry might be messing things up. Click here -> http://www.pctools.com/registry-mechanic/?ref=googleB and then click on Start Registry Scan now to download Registry Mechanic and do a full scan for errors.

The downside of this program is that you may find more errors than expected, so it can be difficult to find which error coincides with your problem. Good luck.

[glb]Gizmo73[/glb]

[MRivers]

Yes, I suppose I should invest in a good registry repair tool. I looked at Registry Mechanic a whlie back when I realized how large the registry had become on a computer that was starting to get sluggish, but figured that I needed a better backup solution (like the ability to clone the entire drive in bootable state) before I'd try any major changes to the registry. The sluggishness turned out to be the famous WinXP "disk slips into PIO mode and won't come out" problem.

The trial version of the program identified about a thousand useless entries, but those were nearly all files that I had downloaded and then deleted. I didn't realize that was stored in the registry, and then not cleaned out when deleting a file. Windows really should take better care of itself, or tools such as this should be provided as part of the package rather than aftermarket products. I guess certain registry problems aren't quite as bad as some people make them out to be, but then one never knows.

[merlin_2]

SFC - System File Checker - (SFC /Scannow)

/SCANNOW
Scans all protected system files immediately.
/SCANONCE
Scans all protected system files at the next boot.
/SCANBOOT
Scans all protected system files at every boot.
/REVERT
Windows XP: Return to default settings.

^Typed in the cmd prompt^

[MRivers]

SFC scans for missing essential system files and when it finds a hole, fills it with a copy from the installation disk, but how is this relevant to my problem? The solution didn't involve a file that wasn't there.

I think I remember from Win98 that this program actually told you what it's doing, but the newer version just runs and eventually stops.  I actually did have a problem most likelly related to this virus attack (based on the time that things quit working) that I fixed using SFC. The AUTOEXEC.NT file had disappeared and the old DOS applications that I use wouldn't run. SFC gave me a fresh copy. I didn't even know of its existence, but now I understand why it's there.

The great thing about Windows is that you can learn so much from it. Now only if I ever had the same problem twice I could feel like a genius.  

[merlin_2]

type reg   in the cmd prompt<list appears>  to compere any reg changes....  

[MRivers]

type reg   in the cmd prompt<list appears>  to compere any reg changes....  

Sorry, you're losing me here. You'll have to be more specific.

Do you mean the DOS prompt? Typing REG there tells me that it's not a program. Or do you mean adding it as part of the command line to SFC?  

Where does the list appear?

And what does it compare registry changes to? There's probably a change to the registry several times a day.

Sorry, if you want to teach me anything, you'll have to go a little slower. I learn the inner workings of Windows when the opportunity (which is usually that something breaks) presents itself. I don't study it or fix it for a living, or a hobby.

[merlin_2]

ok... start again  before confusion creeps in?.....if you type reg after the  command prompt   c:\>  it should display a list like reg query /? reg restore /? reg compare  /? etc.......cmd list>http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx

you could do this >>http://www.windowsreinstall.com/windows2000/emergencymanualrepairno/index.htm

[MRivers]

ok... start again  before confusion creeps in?.....if you type reg after the  command prompt   c:\>  it should display a list like reg query /? reg restore /? reg compare  /? etc.......

Aha! That's in WinXP (on the other computer in the room - now I see what you're talking about). Win2000, at least my installation, doesn't have that command. Being the smartypants that I am, I copied it from the XP machine to the 2K machine and by golly, it works there, too.

Thanks for the pointer on restoring Windows 2000. I'll bookmark that (on the other computer).