WARNING! l33t sp34k 4h34d.

Hacking is a form of art, expression, and an appreciation for silicon and transistors. I almost lost faith in those things.

People won’t understand this art of mine. It’s something I can’t physically express. People won’t look at my computer’s innards or the organization of my Windows registry and say, “Wow, that is truly a work of art.”

Anyway, I spent the majority of my free time yesterday fixing my computer. To those of you who caught me online taking a break before sleeping last night, consider yourself lucky.

I had to use the defunct Windows 3.1 PROGMAN.EXE as a shell for Win98, in order to boot up and access the system. Once that happened, I downloaded the latest service pack of IE6, since it’s all tied in proprietarily with Windows Explorer. Oh, if you didn’t know what was wrong with my computer in the first place, I apologize. I was rather angry that night to go into details. It’s quite fascinating, actually. I came home to TWO BSOD’s. They were caused by my webcam’s software, of all things. Somehow, the looping program errors must have done something to the registry, because upon a forced taskbar reboot, scanreg came up with a message stating that the registry was unstable, and had to be restored from backup. Of course, I NEVER do registry backups (a lesson I’ve learned greatly from), so the most recent backup was made when I first installed the system. Ouch? Yeah. So, since then, I had installed IE 5.01, then IE 6.0, which, of course, updates the registry info for Windows Explorer. When the registry was restored from BEFORE those updates, Windows Explorer crapped out because the specs didn’t match up. So, basically, everytime I booted the machine, I came across this:

EXPLORER.EXE has caused an invalid page fault in module EXPLORER.EXE at <Insert Random Memory Address Here>.

If I closed the error, nothing happened. No desktop, no icons, no start menu, no フワフワ startup sound. Is that messed or what? Of course, I was thinking, “Total disaster. My life is over. I’ve pretty much lost the love of my life,” so I went and watched a movie. When that was done, I decided to install Win98 over top of the current one. It did the trick, but I had a long way to go – backing up data and reinstalling programs. I went to sleep and woke up somewhat refreshed (due to lack of sleep and the prospect of the busy 13-hour work day ahead), the hacker in me asking, “There’s GOT to be an easier way.”

When I got home after my exhausting 13-hour shift (which was hella busy at both jobs!!!!! X_x), I got to work on poor Mai-chan. I booted up the system, which was reinstalled the other night, and decided to hunt my hard drive for ANY backups of my registry files. ANY at all. Fortunately, I remembered Fix-It Utilities and decided to browse the directories. BINGO! TWO – count ’em – TWO backups were made prior to the installation of Fix-It Utilities in a hidden folder. I tossed that baby over in DOS, rebooted, and was presented with my Lain wallpaper, color scheme, sound scheme, and login dialog of yore. However… booting in still gave me the stupid page fault. What did I do next?

Happy hacking skills, engage.

I used the methods described above, booting into Program Manager of “Windows 3.1 mythology” (heheheeeeee ^_~), and wondering what I would do. First, I downloaded and installed IE6 SP-1. After that, I started Fix-It Utilities and tried to repair any damage. Tons of registry errors popped up and I killed them all until none were left. A quick registry defrag later, and I was back in business, logging in happily (and successfully) like a person who just broke the FBI encryption algorithm. However, certain… things… weren’t working. They were simple, however. Just a quick install of the latest video drivers and DirectX 8.1b, and most of my games were up and running again. However, two of my most recent games weren’t working, as well as a few select programs. Right now, this is where I’m at, going through programs and reinstalling the ones that aren’t working right now.

So… my parents and I decided to NEVER celebrate my birthday on time again. I just have really bad karma when it comes to my birthdays, and I don’t mind celebrating earlier or later. Anyway, I hope you actually READ it. I don’t think you’ll understand most of it, but… hahaha. Oh, well.

By the way, I forgot to mention that I rock in many 5up3r l33t ways. Here’s to my 24th year.