This isnt an authoritative answer Ive just had this problem, sifted through the initial bogus media coverage, found a solution, and started speculating on the real cause. Heres a workaround for the problem, though this company mis diagnosed the problem it wasnt an ACL problem. This fix is opaque and comes from a third party, but it fixed the problem for me http www. TP.jpg' alt='Windows Xp Black Edition 7 Styles' title='Windows Xp Black Edition 7 Styles' />Page 1 of 4 What to do if youre still on Windows XP should I upgrade from Windows XP 1. What to do if youre still on Windows XP should I upgrade from Windows XP I had a BAT file that I made and used on Windows XP clients for making directories copying shortcuts we use for AutoDesk Civil 3D 2009 C3D that Im now. Applications that change MAC addresses with Windows XP and Vista no longer work. Do you know of any applications or finally functionality in the OS that. Windows Xp Black Edition 7 Style MistakesBlack Screen woes could affect millions on Windows Vista and XP. Note their fix is an exe and they dont tell you what it does. I appreciate that they are helping, but they should fully disclose their fix so at least advanced users can have confidence in their good intentions. Heres a better possible reason for why the problem occurred a registry key telling Windows which shell to run on login was corrupted a REGSZ key was missing a 0. Sounds somewhat plausible, but the fishy part is what caused that http www. Windows Black Screen Root Cause. My symptoms observations I ran into this problem on a Win. How To Install Brutus On Ubuntu Mate on this page. Windows Vista Ultimate. I log in, get a black screen, and Windows never proceeds to setting up my desktop, etc ie, Windows never launches explorer. Running the fixing tool from Prevx did solve the problem, however their diagnosis for the cause of the problem was wrong their initial hypothesis was the ACLs were incorrect and implied Windows Update patches broke it, but that was wrong. They followed up with the non null terminated string hypothesis. Before running Prevxs tool, the registry key existed, Reg. Edit visually displayed the expected value explorer. ACLs were fine.   Yet, of course, I couldnt successfully log in. My pure speculation about the cause So if the missing 0 hypothesis is correct, and if the Prevx tool deletes recreates the value in the registry key, obviously that should fix the problem. FYI look at the MSDN docs for Reg. Set. Value. Ex for a note about the lp. Data parameter needing a 0. But that doesnt explain how the value got messed up in the first place  I dont go around removing terminating zeros from REGSZ values for fun nor profit. Sounds like either random corruption, or more likely, something wanted to run something when Windows boots then incorrectly undid their change to the registry. I saw that some MS security folks suggested this could be caused by malware http blogs. Operating under that hypothesis, I ran Forefront on Wednesday using the current signatures, but it didnt report anything. That may not spot a novel virus or rootkit, of course. Another wild guess perhaps the act of installing certain classes of patches could cause the problem, due to a hypothetical bug in Windows Update. Windows Update does something on boot up to configure patches, and it looks like this happens after login but before Explorer is running. Perhaps Windows Update itself could be editing this registry key to replace the shell with another program that configures patches or options to explorer. If thats how it works which is a big guess, then maybe when WU restores the registry key value to explorer. Win. 7.   Of course, I would have expect to see a bad value for this reg key in Reg. Edit if this were the case. I didnt perhaps there were some unprintable characters in the string, or Ive empirically shot down my own wild guess. Note my problem occurred on a Windows 7 Ultimate machine that was upgraded from Vista Ultimate. Perhaps something during upgrade may have introduced some registry corruption that didnt show up until another value in the registry was changed later  BTW, to confirm the fix narrow down this fix, perhaps someone w a broken machine can reboot into Safe Mode, run Reg. Edit, delete HKEYLOCALMACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrent. VersionWinlogonShell then recreate the Shell key as a REGSZ key, with the value explorer. If that works, that could help confirm the cause and allow us to give standalone instructions for a fix that we can have more confidence in as opposed to telling people to run an exe from a third party. Windows XP editions Wikipedia. Windows XP has been released in several editions since its original release in 2. Windows XP is available in many languages. In addition, add ons translating the user interface are also available for certain languages. Home and ProfessionaleditThe first two editions released by Microsoft are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power users. Windows XP Professional offers a number of features unavailable in the Home Edition, including 3The ability to become part of a Windows Server domain, a group of computers that are remotely managed by one or more central servers. An access control scheme that allows specific permissions on files to be granted to specific users under normal circumstances. However, users can use tools other than Windows Explorer like cacls or File Manager, or restart to Safe Mode to modify access control lists. Remote Desktop server, which allows a PC to be operated by another Windows XP user over a local area network or the Internet. Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network. Encrypting File System, which encrypts files stored on the computers hard drive so they cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium. Centralized administration features, including Group Policies, Automatic Software Installation and Maintenance, Roaming User Profiles, and Remote Installation Services RIS. Internet Information Services IIS, Microsofts HTTP and FTP Server. Support for two physical central processing units CPU. Because the number of CPU cores and hyper threading capabilities on modern CPUs are considered to be part of a single physical processor, multicore CPUs are supported using XP Home Edition. Windows Management Instrumentation Console WMIC WMIC is a command line tool designed to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using simple keywords aliases. The ability to switch hard disk storage type from Basic to Dynamic and vice versa. Edition NeditIn March 2. European Commission fined Microsoft 4. US7. 84 million and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player. The Commission concluded that Microsoft broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players. After unsuccessful appeals in 2. Microsoft reached an agreement with the Commission where it would release a court compliant version, Windows XP Edition N. This version does not include the companys Windows Media Player but instead encourages users to pick and download their own media player. Microsoft wanted to call this version Reduced Media Edition, but EU regulators objected and suggested the Edition N name, with the N signifying not with Media Player6 for both Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Because it is sold at the same price as the version with Windows Media Player included, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens have chosen not to stock the product. However, Dell did offer the operating system for a short time. Consumer interest has been low, with roughly 1,5. OEMs, and no reported sales to consumers. The N editions of Windows XP also do not include Windows Movie Maker, but Microsoft has made this available as a separate download. In December 2. 00. Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2. Windows Media Player or Windows Messenger. Like the European Commission decision, this decision was based on the grounds that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the market to push other products onto consumers. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market. The K and KN editions of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition were released in August 2. English and Korean. Both editions contain links to third party instant messenger and media player software. Home Edition ULCPCeditThis edition of Windows XP Home is intended for sale with certain low cost netbooks and will appear labeled as Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC with ULCPC standing for ultra low cost personal computer. Professional Blade PC EditioneditThis version comes preinstalled on OEM solutions providing desktops on Blade PC hardware. In addition to a copy of Windows XP Professional, it includes a Remote Desktop License. Starter EditioneditWindows XP Starter Edition is a lower cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It is similar to Windows XP Home, but is limited to low end hardware, can only run 3 programs at a time, and has some other features either removed or disabled by default. According to a Microsoft press release, Windows XP Starter Edition is a low cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first time desktop PC users in developing countries. SpecializationeditThe Starter Edition includes some special features for certain markets where consumers may not be computer literate. Not found in the Home Edition, these include localised help features for those who may not speak English, a country specific computer wallpaper1. Windows XP installations. The Malaysian version, for example, contains a desktop background of the Kuala Lumpur skyline. In addition, the Starter Edition also has some unique limitations to prevent it from displacing more expensive versions of Windows XP. Only three applications can be run at once on the Starter Edition, and each application may open a maximum of three windows. The maximum screen resolution is 1. In addition, the Starter Edition is licensed only for low end processors like Intels Celeron or AMDs Duron and Sempron. There is also a 5. MB limit on main memory and a 1. GB disk size limit. Microsoft has not made it clear, however, if this is for total disk space, per partition, or per disk. There are also fewer options for customizing the themes, desktop, and taskbar. Market adoptioneditOn October 9, 2. Microsoft announced1. Windows XP Starter Edition sold. In the mass market, however, the Starter Edition has not had much success. In many markets where it is available, pirated versions of higher end versions of Windows are more popular than their legal counterparts. In these markets, non genuine copies of XP Professional can be obtained at a mall. These stores typically charge only for the amount of the CDsDVDs taken up by the files, not the original retail value. Unlicensed copies of Windows XP Professional typically cost US0. CD compared to around US3. XP Starter. 2. 0Media Center EditioneditThis edition, which was code named Freestyle during its development, was first released in September 2. The initial release was available solely in conjunction with computers that included media center capabilities, and could not be purchased separately. The first major update was released in 2. Tier 1 OEMs who had previously sold Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, and then updated again in 2. System Builders. Many of the features of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2. DJ, and high end visual screen savers were taken from the Windows XP Plus These were originally shipped as add ons to Windows XP to enhance the users experience of their Windows XP machine. ReleaseseditA preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsofts e. Home division, was shown as CES 2. July 2. 00. 2. 2. Windows XP Media Center Edition Freestyle, July 2. This was the original release.