Error when opening Internet Explorer, Control Panel or My Computer.

[ddeder]

I have a computer running Windows XP Home. I started getting a zillion popups a day so I ran adaware and it found about 400 potential problems. I looked over the problems it found and decided that they could all be deleted. After having Adaware do this, the popups have stopped. The computer is now running fine except for one minor annoyance. Whenever I open Internet Explorer or Control Panel or My Computer, a little window pops open with a red X and says:

"is not a valid date.

I can then click OK on this little window and Internet Explorer will open (or the Control Panel or My Computer depending on which I am using) and will work fine. I can browse the web just fine with no errors but if I try to open another Internet Explorer window, the same error pops up.

I have reset all of my internet options to the default. I have set my date/time settings in the Control Panel to default.

I know I can go back to adaware and undo the changes one by one to find the key that was deleted causing the problem but there are over 400 - it would take forever since a reboot would almost certainly be required after each change. By the way - Do changes to the registry require a reboot before taking affect? I looked over the keys that were removed by adaware and none stood out as possibly something that would cause this problem.

Thanks for any help!

 

[scrawl]

A quick search on google came up with examples of the same error message showing up when starting some other programs as well. However, they all seem to lead back to the same problem:

This is due to the Short Date Style in the Regional Settings of your computer being different to the default setting (normally set to dd/MM/yyyy hence the error).

OK so how do you change it?
- Go to the Control Panel and Double Click 'Regional Settings'
- Click on the Date Tab
- Now look under 'Short Date' you will see an option labelled 'Short Date Style'
- Select the date format 'dd/MM/yyyy'
- Apply and OK

Let us know if this resolved the problem!

 

[ddeder]

Yeah, I tried that - no luck. Thanks.

 

[MikeShapi]

If your computer is messed up to that point and reseting all the settings to default doesnt work i would back up all your info and reformat.... a lot of people dont reformat enough and sometimes Windows just gets way too cluttered with crap and its impossible to remove all of it properly. Thats what i would do...

 

[pyrojunkie]

Originally posted by: MikeShapi
If your computer is messed up to that point and reseting all the settings to default doesnt work i would back up all your info and reformat.... a lot of people dont reformat enough and sometimes Windows just gets way too cluttered with crap and its impossible to remove all of it properly. Thats what i would do...

Worst response ever. Sometimes a reformat has to be done, but it rarely needed. There is always a way to remove everything not needed and restore windows to its optimal state. If anything reformating is used too often. Its used most often by people who rather just eliminate the problem instead of trying to understand it and prevent it from happening again.

ddeder, I would recommend you use the System Restore function with XP. Its a great way to get XP back to a state that was better than it is now. It does not delete any data, and only rids of installed applications (bad and good) installed after the restore date you select. To run System Restore, just boot into Safe mode, and follow the instructions from the first message that pops up.

 

[beaconengr]

Agree 100% with previous post. Reformatting, in and of intself, never solves anything. It simply forces you to remove the offending software, driver, etc. You are much better off trying to locate and resolve the problem with other methods. Besides, if you reformat without knowing what caused the problem, odds are high that you will simply reinstall the problem without knowing it, and you are right back where you started. If you surf the web much, you should run adaware every day. You should also update at least twice a week. I also run spybot, and between the two of them its hard for spyware to hide on my computer. Your virus protection whould be updated daily. Do these things and keep your computer clean.