Missing Shell.DLL

I have a customer who is having problems with the Shell.DLL file missing. A message pops up occasionly stating it is missing or unable to find it. What does one need to do to correct this issue? It happens when the customer boots and logs-in to their computer and also when opening different programs such as QuickBooks.

The O/S is XP Home

Thanks in advance for any help,
Jody Wood

Tell them to try this:

Start>Run>sfc /scannow

Have the XP CD handy, this will replace any missing or corrupt system files.

If this is happening just with Quickbooks they may want to try doing a repair install of Quickbooks or Uninstalling and Reinstalling it.

Hope this helps

Hong

Tried the "sfc /scannow" from the Command Prompt window. It ran for a bit and then requested the XP Home CD. Placed that in the CD drive (tried both of them), but it continually prompted for the CD with the following buttons: retry, more info, or cancel. The computer is a Dell PC, which is just over a year old. Does it not like the Dell supplied version of the XP Home CD? Is there another way to handle the need for this CD?

Thanks,
Jody Wood

Hi Jody

I`ve done a bit of poking around and some instances of this have been caused by a virus.

First
Open up a Windows Explorer so you can see files on your hard drive. Go to the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder and make sure that SHELL.DLL is indeed there. It should also reside in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder as well. They should be the exact same files.
If you do not see it in one of those folders, copy (don't move) the SHELL.DLL file from where-ever you now have it and place it in both of those folders.

If you can`t find it or if it disappears again after a reboot it could be the virus
Trend Micro Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

If still not fixed download
Hijack This http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/

Make a special folder to download it to. Set it to "Scan" and then to create its "Log". This will be long, but copy all of it into Notepad and post it back here to be checked.


Elaine:)

What does Hijack do? I have not heard or come accross this previously.

Thanks,
Jody

Jody

HijackThis is a very hand program that we use here a lot.

It examines certain areas of the registry for and gives out a report.

We use this report to see if you have any reg keys that shouldnt be there ie spyware.

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html

Thanks for the info from hijack.
I have a number of users recently having problems with an application that is still 16-bit; cannot find shell.dll. All seem to be Windows XP. I wonder if there is some recent update to XP that is less compatible with 16-bit? Compatability mode doesn't seem to help.