Litestep bad install

from WinCustomize Forums
The story so far:
Created new user acct and installed Litestep to that acct, only it didn't work very well, some sort of bad mix of windows and LS. I changed back to the Explorer shell and the new acct was fine but my personal acct was running LS, but with no wharf or icons to change the shell or anything else. When I tried to uninstall from any acct or even as Admin in safemode it said I didn't have access to uninstall.
At that point I created a 3rd admin acct and deleted the LS acct from there. Now when I open my normal acct I get a window open to My Documents, but nothing else, no wallpaper taskbar, or any other Windows controls. I got Objectdock open via task mgr. and also went into control panel and was now able to uninstall LS. I tried opening explorer.exe from task mgr, but it didn't change anything. Can I use regedit to set explorer back to default shell? and if so what do I edit?
If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to do a repair reinstall of XP, though I'm leaving that as a last option.
Sorry for the long post but if someone can help I wanted them to have all the info up front. [BTW I,m running XP Home SP1 ]
3,652 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You could do a system restore back to a date when you didn't have litestep installed by doing the following...Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore/Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Then Just Hit Next And Do What It Says
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Like a DA I had System restore turned off, so I have no reatore points.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh Ummm... That's bad... Are you running service pack 1?
There is a service pack 2 available now if you didn't know, but I have to say I really have no idea what you can do, because I'm not familiar with Lite Step or Regedit. Hopefully someone else will see this topic soon...?
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
An old way to solve this is to install a shell switcher such as 'ShellON' and when it loads choose 'Explorer.exe' as your shell....and Litestep won't be loaded at all....
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Finally!! Jafo is here
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Depending on exactly what version of LS...and how it was installed, there will be other ways to correct this.....and NONE will require a system restore at all.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo,
version 0.2.4.7 everything seems to be OK except for my primary acct. My kids have two accts that are set to limited and they weren't affected.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Rather than editing the registry...just install ShellON...and set explorer as the default from there.

I have never in 6 or 7 years bothered with an LS Installer...as pre NT it was a system.ini edit that took two seconds...but in NT [XP] you need to set a few lines in the registry....and ShellON can do that for you...so again it is painless.

I'm sure someone will come along with the reg settings to alter....but it doesn't have to be that 'complicated'...

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks Jafo. I DLed ShellOn and will give that a shot.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Best thing about XP is that the task manager means you don't actually need a shell at all...and if you 'lose' one...you just restart it via the manager...
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It sounds like your runninga build of Omars Litestep installer (I hope so).
I would boot into that user and via the task manager open windows explorer.
In the main Litestep directory there is a subdirectory called utilities. There is an exe in there called setshell.exe.
Just fire that up, click explorer. and reboot (may reboot automatically).
Only problem I could see might be admin privilidges, but might be worth a try.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I got explorer back. ShellON didn't want to startup without any shell running, even though I told it to set Shellon as the shell nothing happened. I ended up reinstalling LS on my primary acct and then ed explorer as shell. After rebooting I have everything back. I had wanted to have LS on a separate acct so I wouldn't screw up my primary, but that's what happened anyway. At least now I have LS on here and I can work with it.
PharOe I think you're right, it is an Omars installer. Idid notice that the versiion on the installer is 3.0.2, which is different than the LS version. Could that have been part of the problem to begin with?
Thanks to all [especially Jafo] for your help.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No, in terms of the installer..
3.0.2 is the newest version of the installer.
0.24.7 is the most recent version of Litestep itself.
That the numbering sequences are different doesn''t really matter. The package is a good one. Although things can obviously go wonky once in a while.
Glad to hear you sorted it out
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