Wininit.exe - terminated process = not good

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by tesk, Mar 30, 2008.

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  1. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Yesterday I cleaned one of my friends Vista computer for virusses and other "good stuff" - I saw the wininit.exe fil and I have never noticed it on my own Vista PC.

    So I decided to look it up at google before i did anything to it.

    I saw it was a worm in the past - so i terminated the process in AVG Anti-spyware and I got a BSOD. When the computer rebooted I saw that ALL the icons for .jpg, .doc actually almost every files are dissapered. The thumbnails for pictures are gone.

    I only terminated the process - it should work after a reboot, I think.

    But does anyone know how to fix this icon problem?

    I would be very pleased.
     
  2. Seer

    Seer Registered Member

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    "In the past" - this would be valid for XP. In Vista wininit.exe took the role winlogon.exe had on XP. So wininit.exe is a very vital system process. It will, for example, give instructions to replace system files in use on reboot (when you upgrade a resident exe i.e.). It is also a host for services (svchost). Killing it was a very unthoughtfull thing to do...

    Have the files that miss their icons retained their functionality? If so, you could try rebuilding your icon cache. If that doesn't help, I would try restoring wininit.exe from a CD/DVD. I have never done either on Vista though...
     
  3. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Why not to try a system restore with a PC clean up again ofcourse!
     
  4. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    Hi,

    Yeah, but I didn't search for wininit.exe vista, then it will come up with some results about it is an important system file.

    But how to I rebuild my icon chache?

    Btw, system restore is tried and it can't restore. Don't know what is preventing it.
     
  5. Texcritter

    Texcritter Registered Member

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  6. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    Thanks for the link and the help

    I will return with any additional information on if it worked or if not.

    if not, I hope someone would have a small trick.
     
  7. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    As I promised.


    It didn't work. Does anyone else want to give their guess? :rolleyes:
     
  8. ravin

    ravin Registered Member

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    Try this

    Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
    Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
    In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
    Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
    Do the following command: del IconCache.db
    Do the following command: start explorer

    This should rebuild the Icon Cache...


    Hope it helps:cool:
     
  9. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    Ravin, thanks for your reply.

    But I have tried that. but without terminating explorer.exe.

    Would that have any influence?
     
  10. ravin

    ravin Registered Member

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    by stopping the explorer you are releasing the iconcache from memory. then after starting it again should cause a build of the new iconcache not the old...if that makes any sense. If that doesn't work no harm done. I will continue to search for other solutions as will others here I'm sure. keep us posted.
     
  11. ravin

    ravin Registered Member

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    I did manage to find a link for tweakVI basic which is free and runs on vista platform. I have not tryed. might be worth a shot. If possible make a restore first. Allway's be safe.

    link is here:http://www.totalidea.com/content/downloads.php

    Moderators...if this not good link to post please remove. Ravin
     
  12. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    The TweakUI of WinXP was able to rebuild icon-cache, very maybe TweakVI has the same feature for WinVISTA.
     
  13. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    Hmm, but it will do the same as deleting the file and make vista regenerate the file?

    I think the problem might me, that Windows dosn't know "what the file is".. If it is a picture and therefore dosn't show a thumbnail.
     
  14. ravin

    ravin Registered Member

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    for the regeneration of thumbnails...that was covered in the earlier link, just change your screen resolution to 16bit and apply then change back to highest and apply that's all their is to thumbnail refresh. allthough I did read somehere about the size of the shellliconcache being increased in vista to 4096 I think was the number.
     
  15. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    I know you can delete all the thumbnails in (im using the danish version of Vista, but translating it directly) the built-in Disk cleaner.

    Should i try it?
     
  16. ravin

    ravin Registered Member

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    As with everything corruption can occur so please be careful. if possible create a manual restore point.

    For the folders showing no thumbails or inccorrect thumbnails try deleting just one thumbs.db in that folder as a test..then close the folder and re-open it. If that works you can do that for the remaining thumbs.db files assuming they are corrupt.
     
  17. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    It is not my computer, but one of my friends. And at this moment, she wants to do a format C:, as she have a LOP infection (she don't want to remove it, I have tried to do it) and some other virusses.

    But I will try, if it is needed. :)

    Thanks for your replies.
     
  18. ErikAlbert

    ErikAlbert Registered Member

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    An Image Backup software and an ISR-software might help in the future.
     
  19. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    LOP is not all that. A good program to pull out LOP safely with repairs wo Winsock if needed is good ole SUPERAntiSpyware. For pity sake's, SAS tackles a lot bigger and meaner fish then that by a long haul.

    It can be cleaned up and set back on track, but either way, the previous suggestion is an absolute *MUST* and you should highly recommend at least a good back up program for them to make images and avoid even worse problems in the future.
     
  20. tesk

    tesk Registered Member

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    I know, and im supporter at a danish forum called spywarefri. We are removing viruses and spyware from computer, so they can help me removing it - that is not the trouble, but she don't want to remove it. If it aint broke - don't fix it. As the spyware dosn't show ads, then she don't want me to remove the rest. That is her problem I think.


    But I am really on deep water with the problem about the icons. Could it be that Vista dosn't know wich icons to show for each file?
     
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