Every now and then I experience problems in Windows where somehow, I don't know how, but somehow, a library file gets corrupted or ceases to function properly. This can cause problems in the specific app it's associated to, and in some cases stop the app from running altogether.
I experienced such a problem this week. My Windows Media Player stopped loading altogether, web pages in IE weren't displaying properly and drop down menu's not working at all, and when opening services.msc nothing was being displayed when in Extended view. This lead me to believe it was definitely related to some kind of runtime environment, java ActiveX, OCX or some such thing.
Anyways. I've found in many cases that re-registering the DLL files using regsvr32.exe will fix the problem. The issue is knowing which files to register...
The below method will register all system DLL files for you, so you won't miss any. I used this method yesterday, and low and behold straight afterwards all my problems were now resolved.
Now what you want to do is list all DLL files on the system, export that to a batch file and then arrange the directory structure to match your system before executing it.
Details:
1) First go Start/Run, and type in ‘cmd’ to bring up the Command Prompt.
2) Type ‘CD \’ and hit enter.
3) Type ‘DIR *.dll /s /b > regdll.bat’ and hit enter.
4) Type ‘Notepad regdll.bat’ and hit enter.
Now Notepad is going to bring up a list of your .dll files, nevermind that for a moment.
5) Now type ‘Path’ and hit enter to see your current path. It will bring up something like: Path=c:\Windows;c:\windows\Command
6) (supplement your Windows Version, ex: C:\WINNT, or C:\Windows) Now type: ‘Path=c:\windows;c:\windows\Command;c:\Windows\Prog
ram~\Accessories’ and hit enter.
7) Verify again by typing ‘Path’ and hitting enter, and then type: ‘C:\WINNT\System32\Regsvr32.exe /s C:\’ and hit enter again.
Now, go back to Notepad and use the replace feature in Wordpad (CTRL + H) or notepad to search for ‘C:\’ and replace it with this: ‘C:\Windows\System\Regsvr32.exe /s C:\’
If you have an older Windows NT based version, etc. use the replace command in note pad to search for ‘C:\’ and replace it with this: ‘C:\WINNT\System32\Regsvr32.exe /s C:\’
*Be sure to type the replace string exactly like above or it won’t work*
9) Use “Replace All” to make the changes to the entire file.
10) When it finishes, save it, exit notepad or wordpad, and return to the Command Prompt.
11) Type ‘regdll’ and press enter. If you followed the above steps correctly it will now go through and re-register all your .dll files.
