Computer Problems...can't watch videos

[Laveau 67]

Hello,

I sat down at my computer to catch the season premiere of Real World Cancun. I clicked on "Watch Full Episode" and this results: "User Must Allow Thrid Party Flash Content". So, I google how to do that. I was instructed to go to http://www.macromedia.com/support/document..._manager03.html There I was suppose to check the box for " Allow thrid-party flash content to store data on your computer" Problem is that it won't accept the check when I click the box! I always watch episodes online via mtv.com so I don't know exactly why NOW it's not allowing me to.

(Well, I do know why. Too many people use my computer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Also, what has been happening is when I turn on the computer and log in under my username, a box pops up which says: "Warning: Logger::Initialize () is not yet called. The log file may experiance corruption if being used by a multiple-DDL's environment"

Then I close that box by either clicking "X" in the upper right corner or by clicking "ok" Either way another box pops up that says: "Application failed" or something like that. No idea what that's about either. At about the same time that started I also noticed that my daughter had changed the background on my user acct...can she do that without my user acct password? Must I have left my user acct open? AND my home page setting was changed from Google to Yahoo. That can easily be fixed but I'm just getting fed up with not finding my computer in the same condition as I leave it. But anyway, any idea how to fix the 1st two issues in this post? Thanks in advance!

Shal

[Bobby+Umit 161]

Sounds like you either have:

1. corrupt Java runtime.

2. downloaded malware (and it cannot load on startup)

3. Flash install is corrupt.

You could have all these problems..

First, go here Malware removal and download the free software to check/clean malware. Run this till it comes up clean (malware not found)

After that - look in your startup folder for any programs trying to load, remove the ones you do not know.

after that, go to Sun Microsystems JAVA and download/install.

after that - go to Adobe flash and install that.

Edited June 27, 2009 by Bobby_Umit

[Teacher Mark 53]

Try downloading real player, if you don't have it already. It's the best I have found for flash videos.

realplayer.com

[NickD 202]

Reminds me of the days I first asked my wife to marry me, she had to share her computer with her two kids plus they drowned her digital camera, so for an engagement present got her a new digital camera and a notebook computer that only she was allowed to use. Since she was using XP as the administrator, I could get remote access of her computer and do a lot of cleaning up. Certainly a bunch of garbage on the web, MP3's and videos are notorious for containing viruses, adware, malware, spyware, etc.

Assume you are running Windows, which version? Regarding all these programs for finding and cleaning this garbage, none available that I know of is 100%, I can run five different programs and still find stuff left over in hidden files and in especially the registry. The only 100% way to clean up a computer is to reformat and reload Windows

Wife and I, (we did get married by the way) were looking at netbooks tonight and also notebooks, shocked as to how the prices came down, can pick up a really nice notebook today for around $400.00. The one I got my wife to be was like $3,500.00, still have it, still collecting dust. Having your very own computer is the easiest way to keep it clean.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Sounds like you either have:

1. corrupt Java runtime.

2. downloaded malware (and it cannot load on startup)

3. Flash install is corrupt.

You could have all these problems..

First, go here Malware removal and download the free software to check/clean malware. Run this till it comes up clean (malware not found)

After that - look in your startup folder for any programs trying to load, remove the ones you do not know.

after that, go to Sun Microsystems JAVA and download/install.

after that - go to Adobe flash and install that.

+1 on the Malwarebytes, an excellent product and it's free too.

[Laveau 67]

First change I've gotten to sit at my computer and attemp the suggestions. I hit a brick wall with the first suggestion of running the Malware removal software. When I go through the motions of having it installed I get a set up failure box that pops up. It says: "Internal error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userappdata" "

I don't know what a/the shell folder constant "userappdata" is. I feel so computer stupid right now.

[Saska+Tim 7]

First change I've gotten to sit at my computer and attemp the suggestions. I hit a brick wall with the first suggestion of running the Malware removal software. When I go through the motions of having it installed I get a set up failure box that pops up. It says: "Internal error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userappdata" "

I don't know what a/the shell folder constant "userappdata" is. I feel so computer stupid right now.

Look at this:

Are you the Administrator of the machine?

Do you have permissions to the "userappdata" folder?

Lets make sure you have permissions to that folder. In order to do the following steps you MUST be the Administrator of the machine.

Since the "Appdata" folder is a hidden folder, you have to set it to show. Below are the instructions for showing hidden folders:

1.

Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.

2.

Click the View tab.

3.

Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, and then click OK.

Now lets make sure you have the correct permissions to the folder

Changing Folder Permissions

1. Right Click on the Folder you wish to restrict properties on

2. Select “Properties”

3. In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Edit.

4. If the your user account is not on the list of users or groups that have permissions defined, you should click on Add. Now you need to type the user name or the group of users for which you want to change the permissions.

5. After adding your account, Click Check Names and then click OK.

6. In the Security window, select the user/group you just added and then click in the first check box under Allow which is “Full Control” and then click OK.......

taken from Microsoft Answers

You can also Google your Error massage.

[Laveau 67]

First change I've gotten to sit at my computer and attemp the suggestions. I hit a brick wall with the first suggestion of running the Malware removal software. When I go through the motions of having it installed I get a set up failure box that pops up. It says: "Internal error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userappdata" "

I don't know what a/the shell folder constant "userappdata" is. I feel so computer stupid right now.

Look at this:

Are you the Administrator of the machine?

Do you have permissions to the "userappdata" folder?

Lets make sure you have permissions to that folder. In order to do the following steps you MUST be the Administrator of the machine.

Since the "Appdata" folder is a hidden folder, you have to set it to show. Below are the instructions for showing hidden folders:

1.

Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.

2.

Click the View tab.

3.

Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, and then click OK.

Now lets make sure you have the correct permissions to the folder

Changing Folder Permissions

1. Right Click on the Folder you wish to restrict properties on

2. Select “Properties”

3. In the Properties window go to the Security tab and click on Edit.

4. If the your user account is not on the list of users or groups that have permissions defined, you should click on Add. Now you need to type the user name or the group of users for which you want to change the permissions.

5. After adding your account, Click Check Names and then click OK.

6. In the Security window, select the user/group you just added and then click in the first check box under Allow which is “Full Control” and then click OK.......

taken from Microsoft Answers

You can also Google your Error massage.

Thank you. I am the Admin. I actually did google the error message and found some "solutions" but I didn't understand most of them. LOL. I didn't come across what you just posted above, however. I will give it a shot when I get home from work today. It was kind of late last night so I gave up pretty easily.

I sincerely appreciate the suggestions that have been given so far.

[Laveau 67]

I found the userapp folder. I am the admin. Also, I found this:

"I am trying to install apps such as MBAM (malware bytes) and my system would not allow me to do so due to "Internal Error: Failed to Expand Shell Folder Constant "userappdata". I went to the folder location and unhid this folder and went as far as changing the "useappdata" folder property and un-clicked the "Read-Only" box (which is not a checked box but rather a blue filled-in box) and it went through the motions of going through all the files within the folder to change the "read-only" attribute. Unfortunately when it was done, the folder is still "Read-Only".

I am the Administrator of the machine under User Account attributes and I have full permission (in the security tab of the folder) to this "userappdata" folder but I cannot make the folder not "Read-only" as the system would not allow me to make this change. I am not sure why this is as I've never had this problem until I left the machine idle for about a month and when I started using it again, this problem popped up.

Also, the registry is Hkey_Current_User_...\User Shell Folder\

Name - Appdata

Type - REG_EXPAND_SZ

Data - %APPDATA%

But there is a strange entry in this folder

Name - 374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B

Type - REG_EXPAND_SZ

Data - %USERPROFILE%\downloads

Not sure if this has anything to do with the problems. Thanks for your help in advance.

Cathay"

The reply was:

"Found a solution by comparing the registry on a computer I'm fixing to my own Vista machine.

I think the spyware responsible for this makes a simple change to keep you from installing anything new... go to the UserShellFolders folder in your registry, the one where you were told to delete the Recent folder. Look at the APPDATA folder and notice that it has the path $APPDATA$. On my good comp, the path was %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming

I changed the path on the bad comp to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming and rebooted into safe mode. I was able to install MBAM without a hitch and am currently running a scan the machine.

Hope this helps... good luck!

-zenchronus"

Cathy said:

"Hi zenchronus...

That worked beautifully...thanks a million! Now I can get on with fixing the malware problem.

Cathay"

I do not know how to do the part in bold. I "unhid" the appdata folder so that when I go to Documents, it's there. But how do I go to the UserShellFolder in my registry? I don't even know what that is. What is the "path"? Uuuggghh.

Edited June 30, 2009 by Shal

[Bobby+Umit 161]

try this.

load in "safe mode" (press f5 or f8) when the computer first starts (after POST) and select that option.

then try to install the malware removal program.

Some junk stops you from loading programs that will remove it.

[Niels Bohr 72]

The Shell is your interface to commands. Weird that there's permissions involved with windows. Usually it's not a problem. However, Linux is very restrictive with permissions.

[Saska+Tim 7]

I do not know how to do the part in bold. I "unhid" the appdata folder so that when I go to Documents, it's there. But how do I go to the UserShellFolder in my registry? I don't even know what that is. What is the "path"? Uuuggghh.

• To bold text in your post, select text which you want to be bold and press b

• You can access your Registry with windows registry editor (press start, press run, type: regedit, press ok), but if you don't know what you are doing better don't play with Registry!

• "path" is address of the file, how computer sees it. Let say that you have picture in .jpg format with the name test on your desktop - usually, path of that file will be: C:\Documents and Settings\Your user name\Desktop\test.jpg

[Laveau 67]

Just read the advices. I will attempt to fix the problem(s) again when I get off of work this afternoon (hopefully). Have a great day!

[Otto 83]

No offense to the other responses - but I would simply suggest a do-over - reloading your OS rather than chasing ghosts. Back up any important files/documents then do a fresh install.

If it's been a while since the system was loaded then you'll benefit from it in other ways as well.

[SuperDuper! 230]

No offense to the other responses - but I would simply suggest a do-over - reloading your OS rather than chasing ghosts. Back up any important files/documents then do a fresh install.

If it's been a while since the system was loaded then you'll benefit from it in other ways as well.

Wow, you are a computer genius, too!