XP Home: Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file

[Guest athompson]

NOTE: Yes, I posted this somewhere else a few minutes ago. Just blame the

MS->news site and let it go...

 

I worked on two PC's in the last 2 weeks with this problem. The first was

Thursday the 14th, the second was earlier this week.

 

I sent them both home working after doing a dirty/repair install of Windows

XP.

 

I just got a call from one of the users(who has dedicated internet access)

and the problem is back as of this morning. Looking in Add/Remove programs,

it seems Windows downloaded a slew of updates and installed them early this

morning.

 

As before, the programs run OK in safe mode.

 

These are both XP Home systems.

 

This problem affects NEARLY EVERY program, and cripples the system.

 

Can not run CMD.exe from the Start/Run box in normal mode. IE also does not

run in normal mode.

 

I tried uninstalling the 3 hotfixes that were released on the 14th, but that

did not fix it.

 

The other PC runs on dialup, so it'll be slower to get the updates so I have

a little time I think before it comes back in.

 

Any help appreciated.

 

I do not have direct access to the PC yet, it's still at customer site.

However I remoted into it earlier in safe mode to look around. This system

does not have IE7.