Yeah, it sounds a bit out there but on my work computer after installing LiteStep with Omar's 3.0.2 that's what happened.

I just last night got into litestep, installing it with no problems on my home computer, Xp Media Center Edition SP1. That worked fine, so I thought it would be fine on my work computer which is XP Media Center 2005 with SP2. My home computer has even undergone a failed SP2 installation and is running logon studio and windowblinds. The work one is pretty much unmodified. Both are running Nod32, if that makes any difference but I doubt it. Anyways, after initially installing it at work, it asked to reboot. I did, and then upon rebooting the shell hadn't changed. Weird, I though, so I used the change shell icon and then it changed. The strangest part was when I went to update build or change theme. Each would fail without even trying . I thought it was a bit weird so I rebooted again. This time... NTLDR is missing error. So I fix that with a variety of tools and such. Then I get back into windows and try to uninstall litestep since obviously the last installation didn't do so well. Well there's no mention of LiteStep in Add/Remove Programs to I go to the LiteStep folder to use the uninstall.exe file. I says the user name doesn't have permission to uninstall. To my chagrin I check to see if NTLDR is still intact... and it's not. Every file on the root drive that's not in a folder is deleted except for the pagefile.sys

What I haven't had time to do is try installing and/or uninstalling LiteStep in safe mode under the Administrator account. I haven't had time. I had previously thought that I had Administrator priviliges under the main account in regular mode. According to LS I don't. So is the proper way to install it to go into safe mode? Or does that work at all? Also, did I royally screw up the installation steps or is this a possible bug in the Omar installer? The most alarming thing is that even if I did manage to mess LS up somehow, I don't think it should be deleting the NTLDR and NTDETECT.com Also, Hal.dll was missing once I fixed the NTLDR. I did get that working again though.

So, sorry for the lengthy message but if this is a bug that effects even one other person it's a very serious one. On the other hand it might just be a problem with my specific machine. Thanks in advance. And I hope I didn't miss an obvious answer in the documentation or in the wiki. ;-)

I have had similar problems with NTLDR in the past and it had to do with installing the file incorrectly. The file just up and disappeared and when I went to put it back I didn't copy it properly. Personally I would say that you have some sort of virus, not necessarily LS related if you got LS from a respectable site. I would switch back to explorer and troubleshoot and fix your NTLDR problem and then try and switch back to LS. Again...normal LS will not touch these files. The only system file it alters is the registry just to make itself load as the default shell. Good Luck!

Thanks for the quick reply, but I doubt it's a virus, since I have an up to date Nod32 virus scan running, also with Spyware Blaster installed. Beyond that it's behind a corporate router/firewall and then another two routers or switches.

Getting up and running again from the NTLDR missing stuff isn't the problem really, I already fixed it, but I'm just curious how it happened and if it's a legitimate problem with the installer.

Omar's installer doesn't touch ntldr. LiteStep doesn't use NTLDR. NTLDR is just a boot loader to load the kernel. LS doesn't come in till waaay later.

I served with NTLDR, I knew NTLDR, NTLDR was a friend of mine...

I think this happend to me. But I cant remember how, why, when, and what I did to resolve it.
Maybe it was something to do with LS, but I dont think so (more likely when I was messing with linux)

This is actually quiet a useful post.

Well what concerns me is that I can reproduce this all I want. Try to uninstall LiteStep or change the shell and... NTLDR is gone, as well as NTDETECT.com and Boot.ini.

I went into Safe Mode to uninstall LS since in normal mode under my account it told me I didn't have proper priviliges. Then in safe mode, under the Administrator account, it again told me I didn't have the rights to uninstall.

I just went an manually changed the shell with regedit and now I'm back to explorer and everything's fine.

Maybe this problem is totally unrelated to LS, but it is a bit strange that it does this everytime I try to use LS.

indeed.

What installer are you using?

Omar's 3.0.2 from the Downloads page.

hmmmm...

Could you open a .rc file after you installed?

Maybe you have to fix that before you can uninstall safely?
Just guessing here btw ;)

No, that was another strange thing I noticed. Because Austerity didn't look right when I get it working, so I tried to check around in the configs but rc files weren't associated.

What makes you guess that?

Any other thoughts?

Sorry for the delay, I dont check around here that much.

What makes me guess that is maybe something screwy happens when you try to uninstall a .rc file that you dont have rights to...

but I doubt .rc and NTLDR are releated...

so you can reproduce this error whenever you want?

Yes.