Now I know why they say Windows sucks. Help, if you can.

[RyGuy]

Here's my situation, I downloaded a windows update off of Microsoft's web site, and now my computer has gone to crap. I have WinXP pro service pack 2, and was trying to download the critical updates off of their website. Everything appeared fine until the restart when I got an error message out of no where right after the "welcome" screen, which impaired me from getting any farther than seeing my wallpaper. Explorer.exe would not load at all, and here is the error that it gives me: "The procedure entry point AssocGetPerceivedType could not be located in the dynamic link library SHLWAPI.DLL" with the caption explorer.exe error. I am able to push CTRL ALT DEL to get the windows task manager to come up, where I can go to "run" to run a program. I know all my files are still intact because I can still see all of them on the drive. Maybe it's worth mentioning I have 2 drives that I use, the C: which I run Windows off of, and games. And my D: drive, which I save just about everything else on. I tried to open up Nero to burn some of my files and back them up off the C: drive, but it freezes, which almost certainly has to do with an improper start-up, because it has never happened before. I tried to overwrite SHLWAPI.DLL with the older version of it off of my Windows XP cd, but I can't do it, because it's a critical system file, so it won't let me overwrite or delete it, even in a safe mode boot.

I have searched google and no one seems to have this exact problem, there are problems similar to mine, but they are just not the same entirely. I Tried the Microsoft website, no luck. This computer is really a big deal to me because I'm only 18 years old and I had to save up a long time to get it, and now it's pretty much useless, and I need it for school and such. Reformatting the entire drive is not an option. I have over 100GB of IMPORTANT things on it. I came here as a last resort hoping maybe someone actually knew what they were doing... which no one seems to these days, even the people at Microsoft. Please, help if you can. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Demalii]

Try starting up in safe mode, if you can, do a system restore to an earlier date which will remove the update you did and should correct the problem.

[Gecko]

Use the Windows XP Setup start-up disks or the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer.
At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press R, and then press C to start the Recovery Console.
Type the number for the appropriate Windows XP installation, and then type the Administrator account password.

Type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:

cd \
cd windows\system32
ren shlwapi.dll shlwapi.old
cd..
cd servicepackfiles\i386
copy SHLWAPI.DLL c:\windows\system32

If the DLL file is not in the Servicepackfiles folder, you must expand these files
from the Windows XP installation CD-ROM and copy them to the System32 folder.

To expand these files from the Windows XP installation CD, follow these steps:
Put the Windows XP installation CD in your CD-ROM or DVD drive.
Type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:

expand CD_Drive_Letter:\i386\SHLWAPI.DL_ C:\windows\system32
cd\
cd windows\system32
ren *.dl_ *.dll

Type exit, and then press ENTER.

[Geekgirl]

If neither of the previous suggestions work you can try to take the shlwapi.dll found and drop it in your system folders.

[Masterlion]

you could start the system file checker from the task manager by typing sfc /scannow