how to restore accessories and utilities other than adding components?

Question

Accessories and utlities have been removed or deleted from my pc somehow and I have tried to restore components by going to the add components option but still will not work. Can someone tell me how to recover all my components in accessories and utilities? calculator/paint etc.

Answer 1

The Accessories directory is not a Windows component, as you have already learned. The bad part of that is that there is no easy way to get all the stuff back because they use 2 different ways to write the shortcuts here.



What I would do is go to another Windows computer and plug in a USB flash drive. First open the flash drive with Windows Explorer. Then right click on the Start button and select Open>Programs. One of the directories that will show on the screen at this point is Accessories. Right click on that folder and drag it to the open flash drive folder, release the right mouse button and select Copy.



You have now copied the Accessories folder to the flash drive, but all the links are not there. The ones that are missing will have to be added individually to the folder you just copied to the flash drive. Calculator is one of the missing applications.



Using Calculator as an example, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories on the other computer and right click on Calculator and then choose Properties. A box will appear, select the Shortcut tab. In the first box is a rather cryptic path and filename, in this case %SystemRoot%\system32\calc.exe



Highlight that entire command and right click on it and choose Copy. Now go back to the directory that is still open on the flash drive. Right click in it and choose New>Shortcut. A box will appear and ask you for a path. Just right click in the box and select Paste. Then press the Next button and it will take you to a screen where you can name your new shortcut, so type in Calculator.



If you have done everything correctly, you will have a new shortcut linked to the calc.exe file. You will have to do this for each utility that you want in addition to those we copied in the Accessories folder, so look through to determine what you need and copy the ones you want.



When you get everything set up on the flash drive go back to your computer and plug it in. All that's left is to copy the Accessories folder to the Programs directory here: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR PROFILE NAME\Start Menu\Programs. That should give you all your accessories back.



It took me longer to type this than it should take you to actually do it. Good Luck.



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Answer 2

You could try to use "SYSTEM RESTORE" to undo this change (it will only work if you still have the restore point in your PC).



Every time you do a "SYSTEM CHANGE", windows will grab a snapshot of your computer (restore point) that will be like a "UNDO COMMAND" of a change made after the snapshot or restore point was made. A System restore will not affect your personal data files, like word documents, etc, but all the changes made to the system after the restore point will not longer exist, that includes any driver/program installed.

When you run System Restore, a calendar is displayed to help you find restore points. If you don't use your computer every day, some days might not have any restore points. If you use your computer frequently, you might have restore points almost every day, and some days might have several restore points.

There are two ways to access System Restore through Help and Support or through your All Programs folder, this last option is out of your reach because it needs accessories.



Through Help and Support:

1. Click Start, and then click Help and Support.

2. Under Pick a Task, click Undo changes to your computer with System Restore.

3. Follow the instructions on the wizard.

Answer 3

Copying the Accessories Folder from another source



If your Accessories folder and/or icons in ProgramData and possibly AppData\Roaming are completely missing, then the only thing you can do is copy them onto your machine from a different system. Using the System File Checker (SFC) won’t restore them and neither will the trick of creating another user a account and copying the icons from there. That will get back some of the icons but those gone from ProgramData, which is most of them, will still be missing.



For your convenience we have zipped up the default Accessories folders for Windows Vista and 7. Simply download the correct 2 files for your o/s, extract the archive and copy the “Accessories” folder inside, pasting it to the location given.



Download:



Accessories folder for Windows 7 ProgramData

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/download/did/761/



Accessories folder for Windows Vista ProgramData

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/download/did/762/



Extract, copy “Accessories” and paste to:



C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\



Download:



Accessories folder for Windows 7 User

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/download/did/763/



Accessories folder for Windows Vista User

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/download/did/764/



Extract, copy “Accessories” and paste to (Replace username with the name of your user account):



C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\



If everything has gone correctly, the Windows default accessories shortcuts should be back!



Windows Vista/7 Accessories Shortcuts

Answer 4

but I dont have CD :( how can i install those components without th CD ... plz help