Folders without names reappear on desktop

Recently two folders without names appeared on my desktop. I can delete them, but they will reappear after a while. Furthermore, when I try to delete them, a window pops up and asks

"Are you sure you want to delete these icons from your desktop? 
To restore it later, go to Control Panel."

 If I open Windows Explorer, go to Desktop, and click on the folder icon without a name, on the bottom left, Windows Explorer displays something like:
0875DCB6-C686-4243-9432-ADCCF0B9F2D7
and
138508bc-1e03-49ea-9c8f-ea9e1d05d65d

This issue may be caused by Office 2013 installation and uninstallation. The following shows the steps to delete these folders completely with the aid of the long names.

1. Click the Windows Start button, and type in regedit in the search box, then press Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace and expand the NameSpace branch.
3. Delete the branches of the same names with the ones found in Windows Explorer.

Now the folders should not reappear by themselves.

MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430) doesn't install

Today I encountered a strange problem. Windows automatic update required me to install a fix, MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430). I agreed and it told me installation had finished.

However, after 2 minutes, windows update asked me, again, to install this KB954430. I clicked custom install once more, and then had to face endless KB954430 installation requirements from stupid windows automatic update afterwards.

The workaround for this issue is to download MSXML 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB954430) from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=96a4413c-5261-4f69-83d0-932c430abd14&DisplayLang=en.

Double click on the downloaded file. Firstly, uninstall KB954430, then install again. Restart your computer when it asks to. And finally, your world becomes quiet again.

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Last week, my friend's computer has a problem with windows. Every time he turned on the computer, the following error appeared:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

The Internet advises to run chkdsk command from the Recovery Console. The problem is my friend doesn't have the administrator password, because it is an office desktop PC. The only choice for him is to wait for several days until the computer is fixed?

It is too early to draw the conclusion. What we can do now is to find a CD of WinPE and then follow the following instructions [1]:

If chkdsk does not solve the problem, then the System file should be restored from backups. There are two places to look for the backups, one is the System Restore folder and the other is \Windows\Repair folder.

Go to "C:\System Volume Information", locate and navigate to the folder whose name begins with _restore.

This folder contains many subfolders which have names of the form RPxxx, where xxx is a number indicating the restore point. Locate an RPxxx folder which has the highest number as its suffix (highest xxx) using the command dir command. Then navigate into that folder. Now, there will be a folder named snapshot. Navigate to this folder.

There should be a file named _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM, copy this file to the \Windows\System32\Config folder with the name System. To solve the problem completely, MS suggests to replace all 5 files (hives) rather than just the system file, ie system, software, sam, security and default. Then reboot the system. This method works only when the System Restore feature of Windows XP is enabled.

While installing Windows, the setup backs up the System registry hive in Repair folder. If the System Restore feature is turned off, then this backup can be used to restore the System hive. First, navigate to folder \Windows\Repair and then copy the System file to its original location and reboot the system.

The disadvantage of this method is that, since the backup is created during the installation of Windows, by restoring this backup all the system configuration and driver installations made after it will be lost.

How to find a bootable CD

1. Ultimate Boot CD http://ubcd4win.com/index.htm
2. BartPE http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
3. Download Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and create the CD yourself.
   

[1] http://swatrant.blogspot.com/2005/11/windows-could-not-start-because_17.html, modified according to the comment.