Need Help from Computer Gurus

[sharpfive 0]

Something happened to Notepad on my XP Home machine. Going to Programs>Accessories>, I find it, but the familiar blue icon has changed to a white rectangle with a blue bar across the top. Now it won't open, and CD's won't automatically start, since the autostart init file usually uses Notepad. I found a working copy in the WNNT directory. Is it safe to simply copy it to the program folder, or will I create even worse problems? I searched the internet and saw the situation can be caused by trojans, but I scanned my system and it's clean.

[SkyDaemon 0]

Quick solutions:
start->run->notepad.exe
OR
search files and folders->notepad

Long Term Solution:
Leave the evil Microsoft empire and it's disgusting interfaces, problems. proprietary licensing schemes, closed source software, and unreliability and....

1) get a mac
2) learn *nix

This message has been brought to you by a computer geek who's been in the industry for too many years, and has heard the exact same problem more times than you can imagine... ;-)

Good luck :-)

-=Raistlin

find / -name jumpers -print; cat jumpers $USER > manifest; cd /dev/airplane; more altitude; make jump; cd /pub; more beer;

[sharpfive 0]

Thank you SkyDaemon. That certainly helps me gain access to the program, but can I copy it back to where it belongs? I'm too used to having CD's autostart.

And yes, I'd love to scrap Windows for something that actually works, but I'm in too deep.

[gerrcoin 0]

Firstly, your programs menu in the Start menu only contains links to those programs. If the program gets moved then the link is useless and also it cannot find the icon that it uses, hence the standard unknown program icon ("white rectangle with a blue bar across the top").

Ok, the Notepad app normally resides in c:\winnt\system32\ (or %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\ if you want to be pedantic). If you are sure that this is in fact the correct app then simply moving it back to this folder will fix the link. The question is: how did it get to WINNT\??? Sometimes viri masquarade as legitimate windows apps, but not in the correct folder (usually in the system path). Check that app with an up-to-date virus scanner, it may well be working as expected but that's no garrantee that it's not infected.

Next, Autoplay for audio CDs is not related with notepad in any way, as notepad is a self contained program for text editing. To fix your problem use Regedit to edit the registry and navigate to
HKLM\Software\Classes\AudioCD\Shell\
and create the string value @ if it doesn't already exist.
Set it to PLAY
and exit and reboot.

If you don't know what the Registry is or have never used Regedit before then you are safer using something like Kai's Powertweaks (guessing at a vaguely familiar name) or Xteq's X-Setup tool to change it.