Win2000 Start Menu / Desktop Icons And Taskbar Missing
Mar 31, 2006
You helped me fix my work PC today and one of my coworkers asked me to post this for him regarding his home PC.He has Win2000 and lost all his desktop icons, start menu and task bar. He has to do a ctrl-alt-delete to do anything.All of the previous fixes here appear to be for XP machines.
I have been having CPU issues at 100%. I contacted HP.com support and the last suggestion they suggested was to update the video card driver. I have a Nividia GSForce2 MX200 (Compaq Computer) They sent me to a link to their ftp site and I followed the instructions to download, install, and do a restart. When I restarted there were no desktop icons. It probably means that whatever files are damaged are preventing the startup from finishing. The normal internet programs that launch upon starting up the computer are not launched and I have to manually launch them by finding them. I tried doing a last known good configuiration, and when that failed in safe mode I couldn't access the Start Menu to do a system restore. I tried rolling back the driver to the previous one to no avail. I called HP and of course they wanted to charge me since it is out of warranty. I said it was their file and I asked for a supervisor who told the tech to tell me the same thing. So I was stuck with chat support. We were able to try the system restore which didn't work. I went to Control Panel and tried cliking on Taskbar or Start Menu but nothing happens. HP sent me 2 links for some patches: ...
I remember few days ago.. my kaspersky identified some system file as a trojan.. so it probably a misunderstanding when i was installing system mechanic. it got deleted.. and i have this automatic option to delete them after they are put in backup in kaspersky. now whenever i open my pc, my desktop and taskbar and start menu,etc goes away after a few seconds! Now i rely on the task manager..
operating system is windows xp All the desktop icons, start menu and task bar is gone except a picture of the wallpaper. Am using a different PC to sent this message.
The problem in that desktop is showing up but there are no icons no taskbar no start menu. only wallpaper. pressing alt ctrl del shows up taskmanager but there are no adware or other such processes running up only system processes, i can run programs through it and other things like softwares. last thing she did was paste cliparts from cd to hard drive.
I have a huge problem that was caused by me trying to delete what I thought were viruses. I went into my "processes running" in the windows task manager and deleted (End Process) what I thought were viruses. I was wrong. I deleted all of my desktop icons and the toolbar/taskbar on the bottom that includes my "start" icon. I can not figure out how to get it back to where it was before I screwed it up. I have tried system restore.
Whenever I start up my computer, I can no longer see the Start button, the Taskbar or any of my Desktop icons. I have tried system restore but there were no valid restore points, and re-installing Windows from the CD has not solved the problem.Has anybody got any ideas about how to fix this? The system also seems to be running more slowly, and on some occasions it will automatically restart about 10 minutes after I have turned it on. I've run a virus update (with updated virus definitions) but it has not found anything.
First the customer told me that all his desktop icons disappeared. I thought maybe he accidentally hid them. He also says that when he goes to google and searches for something, when he clicks on the search results, he is directed somewhere else. Ok, so we know his browser is being hi-jacked. But this I didn't expect. Look at the screen shot below when I remoted into his PC. No icons, no start button. Customer has XP Home Edition. Right-clicking on the desktop does absolutely nothing. I can bring up the task manager and select New Task, but I cannot run explorer.exe. I just get a permissions error. I was able to install Malwarebyte's, but after scanning for 8 seconds, the program just closes. Now I am trying an online scan to see if that works. I can't access My Computer at all. I really can't even run most programs. After Malwarebyte's closes, I cannot open it again. Not even by typing the exact path in the New Task window. I can open IE, but it won't let me access his hard drive or anything. I just keep getting an error about permissions. Obviously not all his permissions are gone since I am able to install software. But his PC is definitely in bad shape. Unfortunately he lives in CA, and I live in NJ, so I have to do this all remotely.
the start menu and Icons are missing from my desktop, how can I getthem back. There is a pop-up "Privacy center" that won't let me do anything, I can't get to the control panel either?
All my desktop icons are missing ,start menu missing, only thing i could see is wallpaper on desktop right click is laso not working,i could only use ctrl+ alt+del to open task mgr and run a program what should i do to take them back.
Lately i've having issues with my computer (Windows XP Professional SP 2, Sony VAIO). The startup is normal until I log into my account, computer slows down and in the end nothing shows up, no desktop icons and even the task bar at the bottom disappears. However, I can ctrl-alt-del and log out of my account and when I log in a second time, everything is back up and running. Then, I go to start menu and for example I click on my pictures, the computer freezes again and I have to reboot. (if i dont click on start menu and instead go on the internet, everything is normal)I did some research and im not sure if it has anything to do with explorer.exe error or just my hard drive is not working properly,
When I log in to my XP home laptop (in regular and safe mode), I am unable to see start menu, desktop icons (however, wallpaper is there and mouse arrow is active) and task bar is missing. Also, pop up the message: wininet.dll is missing (twice).Now I am able to log in safe mode and can see all desktop icons start button and task bar but still I am unable to get all those in regular mode. Meanwhile, my Norton told me that computer has Bloodhound.W32.EP virus but unable to fix it.
Running Windows XP Pro. I have no icons, no start menu and no taskbar. The only way I can run any program is to ctrl-alt-del and start a new task and I can run Iexlporer and get on the internet. However, I try and run Regedit, it comes up for a second and closes. I've ran Housecall, Virus Scan, and Regedit in Safe Mode but have found nothing. I've been getting "Project1, It's Time" popup and sometimes I get the RPC 55 second countdown to shutdown as well. I figure this must be something new or these virus programs are not finding my problem.
I've recently had some corruption to my c: drive as a result of resizing using Partion Magic 7. I managed to run chkdsk via Recover Console and was then able to boot.But now the Task Bar does not show. Also it thinks there is new hardware. I can run some application via the icon on the Desktop but not others. Does any one know of a way to resolve this? Am I running XP sp2.
I just turned my computer on today and my taskbar is magically gone. I can't right click where it is on the screen and I know it's not hidden etc (i'm not a moron). I can hit the windows key to bring upt he start menu but I cannot see the bar, clock, etc on my screen. I've tried a bunch of things and nothing has worked. I thought it was just that explorer.exe wasnt on, but my icons and such are working just fine, and when I control+alt+delete it shows explorer.exe as running.
A friend gave me his daughters computer to fix and I've been working on it for a week now and I'm more or less stuck on what to do, although I have a pretty good idea what the problem is. This system is a Dell with XP Home SP1,Initially it was infested with virus's, trojans, adware and spyware. you know the usual teenage stuff and the symptoms were pretty much the same as now after selecting the user name from the list you'd get a black screen (no matter who logged on) and that would be it. I could bring up the task manager with Alt-Ctrl-Del and run programs from there and so I was able to Run the add / remove programs applet and get rid of the Norton Anti-Virus and install NOD32, updated and cleaned the hard drive.(internet connectivity works find) Install the latest Adaware 1.06 and do a full system scan, remove all the various garbage.
I just recently set up my grandmother's new computer. XP Home came preinstalled of course, and I just installed SBC Yahoo DSL. McAfee also came preinstalled however i had to update it. I also had to disable it in order to install the DSL. Shortly after i finished installing the DSL, I got an error message saying Windows had to shutdown to prevent further damage to itself. Now booting up I am missing my taskbar and desktop icons.
I cannot access any file on the system, as it tells me that the file cannot be found and to make sure the path is right
Today whilst using a program, my desktop, taskbar and start menu disappeared. I have used task manager to start explore, and it momentarily reappears before disappearing again. I have rebooted with no success. I have also attemtped to restart in sfe mode, but again no menu or desktop is available. I have attemtped to use my original XP disk to repair, but as Service pack 2 is installed it just gives me a fatal error message saying I am unable to reinstall. I have run reg cure, and I have up to date virus and spyware software.
I start my pc and when I reach the desktop, I just see a black screen with the mouse pointer appearing. The taskbar and the desktop icons (in both safe mode and normal) mode are missing.When I try to have new task 'explorer.exe', it says that 'can't find explorer.exe'I surfed the net for solutions but it seems that I need to reinstall or repair windows.
When I start up Windows all I see is the background. Just my wallpaper, with no start bar, no taskbar, no desktop icons, etc. BUT, oddly enough, when I check running processes in Task Manager, explorer.exe IS running. The only way that I can get it to "appear" or run correctly is if I end that task, and then run a new explorer.exe. Also, when this happens, my computer doesn't seem to have completely loaded all drivers, such as sound. I have not installed any odd programs lately, and I have run a bunch of spyware checks as well.
The desktop in my daughter's Inspiron 6000(4 years old machine. WindowsXP home) has no icons, taskbar or start button. This began yesterday morning. No new downloads before this started. Trojan removed two months ago from the system and has been working well since.Problem seems to be common going by my search but the only solution that everyone seems to be leading to eventually is a repair re-install. Have tried reinstalling explorer.exe to no avail. I only get a one second flash of the taskbar. Any suggestions before doing the re-install? BTW, checked for new malware, the system is clean.
I just spent about 5 hrs today dealing with a new high speed provider, and setting up my modem. I activated Tweak XP (from Total Idea), because I like the some of the features it offers. Anyway, I set it up, and restart the computer. Immediately after I hit the desktop, all my icons (that I can clearly see) and taskbar/clock/etc disappear. Being forced to run all my programs from the Task Manager Run command kind of sucks, so I'm wondering if there is a shortcut command to toggle my desktop icons back on. In the Tweak XP setup, there is an option that allows you to hide the taskbar, start menu, icons, etc... but it won't allow me to turn that off. Anyway, I downloaded Tweak UI for Powertools from ms.com, but I don't know how to activate it using just the run command. Though I would classify myself as more than proficient with Windows, I'm totally lost without a desktop and start menu.
I have about 80 computers running in a domain environment.All are winxp pro sp2 or better. The server in Windows 2003 sp2. What I've been experiencing is when a user logs in sometimes explorer doesn't start. Its very random. I can't find a pattern. I just have the user ctrl-atl-del, log off and log back in and all is fine. We are running Symantec AV 10.2 (10.1.7.7000 is what is installed on each pc). I know this is the cause of the problem because of 2 reasons. I uninstalled Symantec AV and the issue disappeared. Also I just upgraded one client from SAV 10.2 to SEP11 and the same thing just started to happen with them. I know others on the net have uncounted the same thing but I have yet seen the fix.
I Had A Trojan On My Computer, And A Few Viruses, I Think I Have Got Rid Of Them, But Yet I Still Cant Get My Icons Or Start Menu To Appear, Safe Mode Or Not. The Icons Arent On Hidden. I Have Tried Everything. I Dont Have A Boot Up Disk Either For Windows Xp
I have XP Home Edition. My problem is that when I try to log into an account (any account) I see the desktop icons, task bar, start button for a second and then suddenly they disappear and I am left with the background. I can not bring up task manager (cntrl+alt+delete) or anything else. I have tried a few things:
1. Ran spyware be gone
2. Ran adaware (got a 'cannot find shell.dll' error after doing this)
3. Tried to using selective startup and disabling startup items (when I reboot it turns it back on)
4. Tried creating a new user account --- problem still occurs.
5. Finally tried a reinstall of XP. Significant to note that during this installation I get an error related to explorer.exe.
The first time I tried to reinstall it aborted the installation. I ran a repair on the programs (from disk that came from Dell with my pc). I then tried the reinstall again....I got further this time but still when it was at the point of installing explorer it through another error and said that the program was not installed.I do not know what to do next!
I have experienced a sudden problem starting programs. The computer boots correctly, and all desktop icons appear correctly. But when I double click a desktop icon, or start a program from the start menu, I get a popup window displaying a list of programs and asking me which program I want to use to start the application. I select the correct program (or browse to the appropriate .exe file), but still the application doesn't start. This includes IE and Windows Messenger. My virus scanner was about the only thing that I could start up, and I did a system scan with Panda Anti-Virus, but it didn't show anything substantial (just some cookies).Using my WinXP set up disk,I've tried to do a repair (I guess reinstallation without reformatting the hard disk), but after I entered the License Key, the computer did a reboot and then stopped. It is stuck on the XP splash screen and won't go any further (I once let it run over night, but it was still frozen on the splash screen). I even tried to repeat the repair process, but that didn't work.Automatic updates did download an update just before this problem started (I think it was the day before the problems began). I don't know what this update was and I'm not sure it was SP3 (system does have SP2 installed).Considering that the computer freezes now when booting up, is there anything that I can do short of reformatting the Hard Drive? I also have another hard drive that I can use to install XP onto. Is there any way that I can rescue the data from the old Hard Drive and transfer to new drive?
think my pc may've been hijacked. The only application that I can access to is AOL.I don't have any desktop icons or a start-up menu.Not really sure what to do.
Last night, I had a few friends over, and one of them had spy sweeper with antivirus. I was going to install that, but later decided that i would just re install my norton antivirus (because it wasnt do the live update needed). I re installed, and after a nice long full system scan, my system came up clean. I continued using my computer for some time last night, and then all of a sudden, the desktop icons disappeared, as well as the start menu. So what does someone do in this situation? I restarted my computer and tried and to hope for the best. Well, it turns out that restarting the computer allows the icons to pop up for only about 3 seconds, and then they disappear again and im left with my wallpaper.I opened up internet explorer by quickly double tapping the icon when they appeared, but then they disappeared again. So I hit control alt delete, and then started a new task which was called explorer. This brought up the icons again, but only for a few seconds...again. So I ran norton again, but only found 1 tracking cookie after an entire full system scan. I have no idea what to do, but im so sick of paying to get things fixed, and everything has been breaking down on me for no reason.
For the last 3 days when she starts her compter up, it boots up fine and loads widows fine as well. When the system is doen booting and its get to the ddesktop screen, no icons are avaialable on teh desktop. Nor is the task bar and start menu available. The only way i can use internet explorer or run any program is fromthe task manager and press ctl+alt+del and run. The mouse is availabe but i can not right click, because there is nothing on the desktop to click.
The start menu and desktop icons are gone. When I right click on the desktop nothing happens. I have to do things with the task manager only! How do I get them back?