Desktops stopped working on Windows 7

ok, so it took me just a little longer than a "couple of days" to get back, but here I am :-)

I never did manage to find the time to test things on my work machine BUT I was (un)fortunate enough to reproduce the problem on my home machine (an aging laptop running XP Home (SP3). And I know exactly when the problem occurred!

I usually avoid installing hotfixes until at least a couple of weeks after their release, downloading automatically, but installing when I'm ready (in order to avoid possible conflicts/problems and at least until I've had chance to read the Windows Secrets newsletter). Unfortunately my 8yo daughter had different ideas and happily rebooted my machine, without selecting the option to reboot without applying updates. The following 5 updates were thus applied and desktops stopped working:

KB969898 (Security)
KB970238 (Security)
KB961501 (Security)
KB961503 (Update)
KB968537 (Security)


The first thing I did when I realised (practically immediately, give or take 10 minutes!) was uninstall the updates. I had no idea what order to uninstall them because they all complained that removal may cause one or more of the other updates to stop working correctly. So I just removed them in the order listed above, with the requisite reboot in between.

After each reboot I checked to see if desktops worked properly again, but no such luck. After I'd removed all of the updates, and discovered that it had had no effect on desktops, I took the slightly more drastic action of rolling back the machine to an earlier restore point. Actually several restore points, all well before the updates were applied, but nothing worked. Zilch. Nada. Desktops still doesn't work correctly, so something in one of those updates made an irreversible change to the system.

Although I keep saying "desktops" isn't working, it actually is working - it's just that 3-4 seconds after switching to a new desktop it automatically switches back to desktop #1.

On my (super-fast top-of-the-range, well at least compared to my 6-7yo laptop :-) desktop machine, an intel dual core 6700 (2.66Ghz) 8Gb with Vista Enterprise SP1, desktops returns to the first desktop almost instantaneously. On the laptop (with an antique amd XP1600+, and 768Mb RAM) I get 3-4 seconds "grace" in which I can open windows, start apps etc. before I'm thrown back to desktop #1.

What's happening, therefore, is that something is causing desktops to return "focus" (for lack of a better way to explain it) to the primary desktop. On a fast machine it looks like it simply stopped working, but on a slow machine it's obvious that it is working, just that for whatever reason the "focus" doesn't remain on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th desktops for more than a few seconds.


If there's anything else I can do to help resolve this problem don't hesitate to tell me! I keep complaining about how slow my laptop is, but in this case that may well be to my advantage :-)

Thanks for listening!

John

ok, I'll start that tonight (much easier to start/stop stuff on the home machine than here at work :-)

Thanks!

John

The reason I listed those updates is because desktops stopped working (that is, switches back to desktop#1 within seconds of switching to an alternative desktop) immediately after installing (and rebooting) those updates.

I know everything was working fine upto that point because I'd been using the computer until shortly before the updates were installed, and I hadn't installed anything else in the 2-3 weeks prior to those updates.

On my work machine the same things happened, except that the list of updates also included a bunch of Office 2007 fixes. It seems a huge coincidence that on two very different machines, with completely different OSes, and significant differences in installed software, the exact same "problem" occurred immediately after installation of a bunch of hotfixes.

I should point out that the list of hotfixes was obtained from Add/Remove Programs with the "Show Updates" option checked. Is it possible that something else was updated, and not listed in the Add/Remove programs list?

Thanks!

John

When I mentioned other (hidden) updates, I was actually thinking of Microsoft updates, anything that may be installed with other hotfixes but which would not have an entry in teh Add/Remove programs list.

No, no common hardware, the machines are physically 30km apart :-)

I didn't actually think to try using a different account - when I get home tonight I'll see what happens with my wife's login and then post back here.

Thanks for the suggestions!

You don't, for example, transport a mouse between the machines...

No, the only "common" piece of hardware would be my usb flash disk, however it's been quite a while (weeks) since I needed to take anything home.

As for AV software, at home I use the free Avira Personal Edition, but here at my workplace we have Microsoft Forefront installed on all of our machines...