Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.

I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:

"There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"

The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related to
the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons have
been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon picture,
only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.

Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
Properties for This PC will open.

In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an actual
System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
Properties not opening.

After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a dozen
fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
have remained unfixed.

Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.

TIA

On 8/30/2023 5:43 PM, George wrote:
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related to
> the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons have
> been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon picture,
> only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
> Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an actual
> System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
> when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
> Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a dozen
> fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
> have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA

A Restore Point, as far as I know, puts the old Registry files back.

A Restore Point, plus no malware on board = fix
A Restore Point with malware = no fix

Most malwares, have code to add themselves to Restore Points. This
prevents users from "escaping" using System Restore.

*******

In Windows Security : Scan Options

is "Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan)". Selecting
this option, the computer reboots in a few seconds, and
it does a scan with the regular software not running. It would
use a WinRE.wim as the boot system, and it does not boot
using the regular C:\Windows files.

The only fault I have with this idea, is the poor interface. It
does not stop, while offline, and give you a nice summary of what
it found. Maybe it does stop -- if malware is present.

In any case, this is what I would do first, before this next step

*******

Repair Install.

Using winver.exe , you can see what version of Windows 10 you are
running. 19045.xxx would be relatively up-to-date (22H2 version).
If you request a Win10 download DVD today, Microsoft would serve
you the 22H2 version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history

It's best to use the same version, or, a newer version. The 22H2
would be the current version. Machines can be stuck on older versions
if Windows Update is broken. Most of the blockers have been removed,
and 22H2 is currently "aggressive" with respect to the upgrade campaign.

Older versions are still available. The Heidoc tool, has a menu
that generates URLs into Techbench on the Microsoft site for that.
You can copy the URL Heidoc Tool makes (using the Copy button in the interface)
into your browser, and see that it is a download coming from Microsoft.

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

https://www.heidoc.net/php/Windows-ISO-Downloader.exe # Uses .net 4.x

When the ISO file arrives, right click it in the running Windows 10 and
select Mount from the right-click menu, then File Explorer and navigate
to the top level of the virtual DVD drive. There, you will find Setup.exe,
which will kick off the Repair Install. After the first reboot, the process
no longer cares whether a DVD is there or not, which is why the process
can work with a virtual DVD as an install source.

If the Registry is infected with something, a Repair Install won't
fix that. During a Repair Install, portions of the Registry are
migrated, and the Registry is not as minty fresh as we would like.
Undoubtedly, malware writers know this.

But that's about the best I can do, as a "blanket solution".
It doesn't come with guarantees. You get to keep your programs
and user data, so the intention of this procedure, is it
does not make changes to the logical function of your machine.

*******

While another solution might be to clean the icon cache, your
symptoms sound more serious than that as a root cause.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5645-rebuild-icon-cache-windows-10-a.html

I would do that from Linux, I would think, as I could have a screen to look
at for the whole procedure. And AppData is not compressed, so that part of
the C: tree should be navigable. Any time a procedure involved killing Explorer.exe,
that's a little more than most people are confortable with (you can restart Explorer.exe
after it is all over, using Task Manager, but the latest OSes may not make this as easy
as it was previously. I was trying to find that the other day, and ended up with
that puzzled look on my face. That is probably why the procedure on the web
page involves a restart, to reduce puzzlement.

It's because Explorer.exe would have the iconcache "open", that the procedure
would fail unless Explorer.exe was killed first.

A Repair Install gives you a new iconcache :-)

Paul

"Paul" <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote in message
news:ucotat$3352h$1@dont-email.me...
> On 8/30/2023 5:43 PM, George wrote:
>> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>>
>> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>>
>> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
>> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>>
>> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
>> to
>> the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
>> have
>> been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
>> picture,
>> only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
>> Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>>
>> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
>> Properties for This PC will open.
>>
>> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
>> actual
>> System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
>> when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
>> Properties not opening.
>>
>> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
>> dozen
>> fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
>> have remained unfixed.
>>
>> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid
>> a
>> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
>> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>>
>> TIA
>
> A Restore Point, as far as I know, puts the old Registry files back.
>
> A Restore Point, plus no malware on board = fix
> A Restore Point with malware = no fix
>
> Most malwares, have code to add themselves to Restore Points. This
> prevents users from "escaping" using System Restore.
>
> *******
>
> In Windows Security : Scan Options
>
> is "Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan)". Selecting
> this option, the computer reboots in a few seconds, and
> it does a scan with the regular software not running. It would
> use a WinRE.wim as the boot system, and it does not boot
> using the regular C:\Windows files.
>
> The only fault I have with this idea, is the poor interface. It
> does not stop, while offline, and give you a nice summary of what
> it found. Maybe it does stop -- if malware is present.
>
> In any case, this is what I would do first, before this next step
>
> *******
>
> Repair Install.
>
> Using winver.exe , you can see what version of Windows 10 you are
> running. 19045.xxx would be relatively up-to-date (22H2 version).
> If you request a Win10 download DVD today, Microsoft would serve
> you the 22H2 version.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history
>
> It's best to use the same version, or, a newer version. The 22H2
> would be the current version. Machines can be stuck on older versions
> if Windows Update is broken. Most of the blockers have been removed,
> and 22H2 is currently "aggressive" with respect to the upgrade
> campaign.
>
> Older versions are still available. The Heidoc tool, has a menu
> that generates URLs into Techbench on the Microsoft site for that.
> You can copy the URL Heidoc Tool makes (using the Copy button in the
> interface)
> into your browser, and see that it is a download coming from
> Microsoft.
>
> https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool
>
> https://www.heidoc.net/php/Windows-ISO-Downloader.exe # Uses .net
> 4.x
>
> When the ISO file arrives, right click it in the running Windows 10
> and
> select Mount from the right-click menu, then File Explorer and
> navigate
> to the top level of the virtual DVD drive. There, you will find
> Setup.exe,
> which will kick off the Repair Install. After the first reboot, the
> process
> no longer cares whether a DVD is there or not, which is why the
> process
> can work with a virtual DVD as an install source.
>
> If the Registry is infected with something, a Repair Install won't
> fix that. During a Repair Install, portions of the Registry are
> migrated, and the Registry is not as minty fresh as we would like.
> Undoubtedly, malware writers know this.
>
> But that's about the best I can do, as a "blanket solution".
> It doesn't come with guarantees. You get to keep your programs
> and user data, so the intention of this procedure, is it
> does not make changes to the logical function of your machine.
>
> *******
>
> While another solution might be to clean the icon cache, your
> symptoms sound more serious than that as a root cause.
>
> https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5645-rebuild-icon-cache-windows-10-a.html
>
> I would do that from Linux, I would think, as I could have a screen to
> look
> at for the whole procedure. And AppData is not compressed, so that
> part of
> the C: tree should be navigable. Any time a procedure involved killing
> Explorer.exe,
> that's a little more than most people are confortable with (you can
> restart Explorer.exe
> after it is all over, using Task Manager, but the latest OSes may not
> make this as easy
> as it was previously. I was trying to find that the other day, and
> ended up with
> that puzzled look on my face. That is probably why the procedure on
> the web
> page involves a restart, to reduce puzzlement.
>
> It's because Explorer.exe would have the iconcache "open", that the
> procedure
> would fail unless Explorer.exe was killed first.
>
> A Repair Install gives you a new iconcache :-)
>
> Paul

Paul, thanks for the ideas. You've given me several days of things to
try!

Appreciate it.

George

George <null@null.net> wrote:

> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related to
> the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons have
> been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon picture,
> only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
> Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an actual
> System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
> when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
> Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a dozen
> fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
> have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.

The failure of the properties page to open is often attributed to some
program you installed that added a shell extension. If the shell
extension hangs or crashes, you cannot open the Properties page.

This is one of the few times a registry cleaner will help. It may
notice an orphaned shell extension, like you uninstalled something that
added a shell extension, but didn't delete the definition when it was
uninstalled or wasn't a clean uninstall, and the shell extension defined
in the registry points at a non-existing handler file, or a remnant one
but the other support files are missing after the incomplete uninstall.
I use CCleaner, and sometimes it has found remnants after an uninstall
that it can delete (upon my permission). Don't use a registry cleaner
that doesn't show you its proposed changes, and asks for your permission
to make the changes. That also means you need to understand for what
are the registry entries it proposes to delete, so sometimes you have to
do some research to make an educated determination of deletion.

You can also use Nirsoft's ShellExView which lists the shell extensions
that got added to the registry. You can use it to check if any that are
listed are for programs you remember previously uninstalling. You can
also disable shell extensions to see if and when the Properties page
works okay. There can be a LOT of shell extensions, and some programs
add more than one. ShellExView reports I have 295 shell extensions
defined in the registry. Only some are active (effected) on some types
of objects, like files, folders, drives, etc.

Since you're getting an error code, have you looked in Event Viewer log
to see if there was an entry added when you attempted to show the
Properties page?

"VanguardLH" <V@nguard.LH> wrote in message
news:1cwfvqa4mqfw8.dlg@v.nguard.lh...
> George <null@null.net> wrote:
>
>> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>>
>> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>>
>> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
>> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>>
>> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
>> to
>> the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
>> have
>> been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
>> picture,
>> only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
>> Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>>
>> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
>> Properties for This PC will open.
>>
>> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
>> actual
>> System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
>> when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
>> Properties not opening.
>>
>> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
>> dozen
>> fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
>> have remained unfixed.
>>
>> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid
>> a
>> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
>> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> The failure of the properties page to open is often attributed to some
> program you installed that added a shell extension. If the shell
> extension hangs or crashes, you cannot open the Properties page.
>
> This is one of the few times a registry cleaner will help. It may
> notice an orphaned shell extension, like you uninstalled something
> that
> added a shell extension, but didn't delete the definition when it was
> uninstalled or wasn't a clean uninstall, and the shell extension
> defined
> in the registry points at a non-existing handler file, or a remnant
> one
> but the other support files are missing after the incomplete
> uninstall.
> I use CCleaner, and sometimes it has found remnants after an uninstall
> that it can delete (upon my permission). Don't use a registry cleaner
> that doesn't show you its proposed changes, and asks for your
> permission
> to make the changes. That also means you need to understand for what
> are the registry entries it proposes to delete, so sometimes you have
> to
> do some research to make an educated determination of deletion.
>
> You can also use Nirsoft's ShellExView which lists the shell
> extensions
> that got added to the registry. You can use it to check if any that
> are
> listed are for programs you remember previously uninstalling. You can
> also disable shell extensions to see if and when the Properties page
> works okay. There can be a LOT of shell extensions, and some programs
> add more than one. ShellExView reports I have 295 shell extensions
> defined in the registry. Only some are active (effected) on some
> types
> of objects, like files, folders, drives, etc.
>
> Since you're getting an error code, have you looked in Event Viewer
> log
> to see if there was an entry added when you attempted to show the
> Properties page?

Thanks Vanguard, I'll add those suggestions to my to-do list.

George

In article <iGqdnX7oLJwuJXL5nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com>, George wrote...
>
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related to
> the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons have
> been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon picture,
> only each icon's text in the same position where the icon should be.
> Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an actual
> System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue, except
> when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures or
> Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a dozen
> fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described above
> have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA

First thing I'd want to do is check the health of the hard disk, using a SMART
monitor utility. I use HD Sentinel (paid) but HDTune is free for personal use:

http://www.hdtune.com/index.html

--

Phil, London

For those following this thread, I had forgotten that I had an Acronis
backup on an external drive, and even though it was about a month old,
after running it, it fixed ALL of the problems. Can't speak too highly
of Acronis backup!

"George" <null@null.net> wrote in message
news:iGqdnX7oLJwuJXL5nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
> to the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
> have been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
> picture, only each icon's text in the same position where the icon
> should be. Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
> actual System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue,
> except when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures
> or Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
> dozen fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described
> above have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA
>

For those following this thread, I had forgotten that I had an Acronis
backup on an external drive, and even though it was about a month old,
after running it, it fixed ALL of the problems. Can't speak too highly
of Acronis backup!

"George" <null@null.net> wrote in message
news:iGqdnX7oLJwuJXL5nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
> to the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
> have been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
> picture, only each icon's text in the same position where the icon
> should be. Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
> actual System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue,
> except when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures
> or Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
> dozen fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described
> above have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA
>

For those following this thread, I had forgotten that I had an Acronis
backup on an external drive, and even though it was about a month old,
after running it, it fixed ALL of the problems. Can't speak too highly
of Acronis backup!

"George" <null@null.net> wrote in message
news:iGqdnX7oLJwuJXL5nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
> to the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
> have been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
> picture, only each icon's text in the same position where the icon
> should be. Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
> actual System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue,
> except when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures
> or Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
> dozen fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described
> above have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA
>

For those following this thread, I had forgotten that I had an Acronis
backup on an external drive, and even though it was about a month old,
after running it, it fixed ALL of the problems. Can't speak too highly
of Acronis backup!

"George" <null@null.net> wrote in message
news:iGqdnX7oLJwuJXL5nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 14-5000 running Windows 10 Home.
>
> I was trying to create a new Restore Point, but get this pop-up box:
>
> "There was an unpexpected error in the property page:
> Catastrophic failure (0x8000FFF)"
>
> The reason for wanting to do a Restore Point (and this may be related
> to the Catastrophic failure message, or not) is that my Desktop icons
> have been replaced with only the icon text. In other words, no icon
> picture, only each icon's text in the same position where the icon
> should be. Right clicking on desktop > View > Show desktop is checked.
>
> Also, discovered that Properties will not open for anything, only
> Properties for This PC will open.
>
> In spite of being unable to create a new restore point, doing an
> actual System Restore of a previous restore point runs without issue,
> except when finished, it didn't fix the problems of no icon pictures
> or Properties not opening.
>
> After spending hours googling for solutions and trying more than a
> dozen fixes, none have worked, that is, all three problems described
> above have remained unfixed.
>
> Having done a lot of personalization on this laptop, I want to avoid a
> wipe of the drive and having to re-install everything. So any
> suggestions, ideas, will be most welcome.
>
> TIA
>