Win XP question - SHDOCVW.dll missing - how to fix it?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, so I broke my computer last night. Windows XP Dell Dimension 8250 machine a little over a year old, cable modem.

I was running SpyBot and it generated a list of items to “fix” and so I did. Then I “purged” the items too and ran updates. The updates timed out so I aborted that and did a ctrl-alt-del to get Task Manager and SpyBot wasn’t responding so I ended it. Then I went to restart the computer and it initally comes up fine - to the point where it shows our three users - me, my wife, our son in XP.

When I click on any user though, an error box pops up and it says something to the effect of “SHDOCVW.dll not found . . . EXPLORER.exe cannot function. Try reinstalling the missing file” and when I click the “OK” (or whatever the button is in the error box) it takes me into the chosen user’s page - BUT - no icons, start menu, or any navigation whatsoever is available - just the background wallpaper.

At this point the only thing I can do is pull up Task Manager, and by going to the File pull down I can get to New Task (Run) and I can access anything on the hard drive and run most programs - except Internet Explorer, so I couldn’t research this problem last night. I poked around long enough to find the “Restore” function and ran that - resetting the computer to the day before - but that did nothing to fix this problem.

I eventually found the missing “SHDOCVW.dll” file in the C:\I386 subdirectory, so I at least know it is there, but I have no idea of how to get the machine to recognize or how to reinstall it.

I also found the CD with my Windows XP on it and attempted to install/reinstall XP but it wouldn’t let me continue down that road since I couldn’t provide my 25-digit security code. I have no idea where to get that.

So, how can I reinstall what is already there? Is there a utility or wizard of some sort that will run this function for me? Do I need to write some lines in DOS (can that even be done anymore)?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help (especially if you can provide detailed steps to fix this thing) - H8_2_W8

2

I can’t help with all of your problems, but I may have a suggestion for one of your stumbling blocks: on many PCs that come with WinXP pre-loaded, the manufacturers have been kind enough to put a sticker on the back with the 25-digit security code on it (my Gateway does, bless their pointed little heads!). Of course, the sleeve that the CD came in should have the code on it, but if that’s gone missing, take a quick look on the back of the machine. Failing that, a call to Dell might be able to get you the number, as long as you’re the original purchaser.

3

I can’t offer too much help, since the file doesn’t exist on the W2K machine here at work, but you may want to try copying the file from c:\i386 to c:\windows\system32. It can’t hurt anything, and it just might work. Just make sure you copy instead of move the file, since the contents of c:\i386 are basically Windows’ installer files and you don’t want to foul them up.

(Since I’m not familiar with XP, the directory you want might be c:\winnt\system32. Use whichever one your machine has.)

4

Another little tidbit: many folks have reported problems downloading Sypbot updates from the European website (UniDo). I’ve seen it get “hung” on my own PC. If you’re trying to get Spybot updates, use the little drop-down box to choose one of the mirror sites - there are a couple in the U.S., for example.