Someone I know who has a Windows XP Pro desktop computer has AOL
running on it with McAfee Firewall (which is apparently tied in
with the AOL).

Recently, because of some access problem, the McAfee Firewall had been
set to "Allow All". (There are three settings, "Allow All" programs to
access the internet, "Filter" (selectively allow some but not others),
and "Allow None").

Later, it was decided that "Allow All" would be too hazardous and that
it should be set instead to "Filter".

After this was done, it was discovered that no internet access at all
was occurring. When the McAfee Firewall icon was launched, a pop-up
window would say something like "Would you like to turn on the McAfee
firewall service? Yes/No". When "Yes" was clicked, the box would
vanish but reappear about three seconds later. When "Yes" was clicked
again, the box would again vanish only to reappear about three seconds
later. So there was apparently some infinite loop, and the only way to
dismiss the box was to click on "No". But of course, this meant still
no internet access. (The DSL internet line, by the way, was OK. If we
plugged it into an alternate computer, we were able to access the
internet just fine).

Then we had the idea of uninstalling the McAfee Firewall. We went into
the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs and specifed uninstall of the
McAfee Firewall as well as a few Windows Live programs. When we
restarted the computer, the bootup process got to the point of
displaying the blank desktop with its textured background and was
about to place the program icons on it but didn't actually get to that
point. It instead just displayed the blank desktop and that was it.
(There was no taskbar at the bottom of the screen and therefore no
Start Menu button). There was a mouse arrow which would move if the
mouse was moved (but there was nothing on the desktop to click on). If
we did Ctrl+Alt+Del, a Task Manager would eventually appear after some
long delay, but when we clicked on "Shut Down", a box came up saying
"Ending EXPLORER" but it didn't complete and we had to click on "End
Task", which left us still on the blank desktop.

We were able to shut off the computer only by pressing the power
button and holding it in for about 10 seconds.

We then tried booting up in Safe Mode with Networking. Similar to
before, the black desktop was displayed with nothing on it except the
"Safe Mode" captions along the edges of the desktop, but no program
icons on it and no taskbar at the bottom of the screen. As before, the
only way to turn off the computer was to press and hold the power
button for about 10 seconds.

I'd normally think of running System Restore, but how would I do that
under these circumstances? If I knew the .exe name and path of System
Restore, I could try to run it from the Task Manager's "New Task
(Run)". Does anyone know the .exe name and path of System Restore?

Does anyone know what else could be done?

....

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/en-us

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

"wylbur37" wrote:

Someone I know who has a Windows XP Pro desktop computer has AOL
running on it with McAfee Firewall (which is apparently tied in
with the AOL).

Recently, because of some access problem, the McAfee Firewall had been
set to "Allow All". (There are three settings, "Allow All" programs to
access the internet, "Filter" (selectively allow some but not others),
and "Allow None").

Later, it was decided that "Allow All" would be too hazardous and that
it should be set instead to "Filter".

After this was done, it was discovered that no internet access at all
was occurring. When the McAfee Firewall icon was launched, a pop-up
window would say something like "Would you like to turn on the McAfee
firewall service? Yes/No". When "Yes" was clicked, the box would
vanish but reappear about three seconds later. When "Yes" was clicked
again, the box would again vanish only to reappear about three seconds
later. So there was apparently some infinite loop, and the only way to
dismiss the box was to click on "No". But of course, this meant still
no internet access. (The DSL internet line, by the way, was OK. If we
plugged it into an alternate computer, we were able to access the
internet just fine).

Then we had the idea of uninstalling the McAfee Firewall. We went into
the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs and specifed uninstall of the
McAfee Firewall as well as a few Windows Live programs. When we
restarted the computer, the bootup process got to the point of
displaying the blank desktop with its textured background and was
about to place the program icons on it but didn't actually get to that
point. It instead just displayed the blank desktop and that was it.
(There was no taskbar at the bottom of the screen and therefore no
Start Menu button). There was a mouse arrow which would move if the
mouse was moved (but there was nothing on the desktop to click on). If
we did Ctrl+Alt+Del, a Task Manager would eventually appear after some
long delay, but when we clicked on "Shut Down", a box came up saying
"Ending EXPLORER" but it didn't complete and we had to click on "End
Task", which left us still on the blank desktop.

We were able to shut off the computer only by pressing the power
button and holding it in for about 10 seconds.

We then tried booting up in Safe Mode with Networking. Similar to
before, the black desktop was displayed with nothing on it except the
"Safe Mode" captions along the edges of the desktop, but no program
icons on it and no taskbar at the bottom of the screen. As before, the
only way to turn off the computer was to press and hold the power
button for about 10 seconds.

I'd normally think of running System Restore, but how would I do that
under these circumstances? If I knew the .exe name and path of System
Restore, I could try to run it from the Task Manager's "New Task
(Run)". Does anyone know the .exe name and path of System Restore?

Does anyone know what else could be done?

....