No Desktop Icons-taskbar Vanished - Only Wallpaper
Aug 12, 2005
Yesterday I got onto my computer which was already on everything seeming fine, and I clicked on internet explorer to check my email then the window locked up or something and then my taskbar vanished. Then I closed the window out and my icons were gone. So I restarted my comp and now its just wallpaper. No icons or taskbar. Ive seen a few other posts on a problem like mine and tried a few of the fixes they said but none worked.
I've tried a system restore to I beleive a week earlier, some shellfix download from ftp://ftp.f-secure.com/anti-virus/tools/shellfix.reg, hitting f8 and doing a boot to when settings worked(sorry cant think of whats its actually called) and a couple other things I believe. I noticed alot of times a request for a hijackthis file is asked for so I went ahead and got that and will post. Also Im positive I have the aurora virus cuz I get all the popups that say aurora on there and I havent been able to get rid of it
No taskbar no icons just desktop wallpaper on a Dell Precision 490 running XP Pro SP2. I had a work-around when this happened, I hit ctl-alt-del, ran task manager then started explorer.exe and all would be well. At first this problem was intermittent but now it's every time I boot. Also when booting into Safe Mode.Now even running explorer.exe won't bring up taskbar or icons. I've run Symantac and found no virus.
Turned on other computer this morning. The desktop wallpaper showed. There were no icons or taskbar. I right click on the desktop and nothing happens. I can do a ctrl+alt+del and access the task manager but have no idea on how to restore my desktop. When I startup in safe mode all I get is a black screen.
I have perplexing problem. Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows Xp Home. SP2. I have no icons on desktop and cannot load any background wallpaper through display properties. They background choices are listed but cannot be selected. I do have icons when running in safe mode. This system was infected with several viruses and lots of spy/adware. Had alot of trouble removing Startpagedu.dll and New Poly Win32 trojans. I am wondering if I missed something. Ran Spybot, Adaware, Webroot Spysweeper, eScan Antivirus Toolkit, Norton Antivirus, Hijack This, CWShredder, AboutBuster, Ewido Security Suite. All of these were ran in safe mode. I also deleted all tempfiles and made sure no rogue services were running. I am lost about what to do next.
When I turn on my computer and click on "user 1" on the start up window, it takes unusually long to load, and once it does all I see is my wallpaper. No start menu, no desktop icons, nothing. I can ctrl-alt-delete and open programs by doing "run new task" and selecting them, and everything runs fine
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..
This is SIMILAR to several posts I've seen, but different in a subtle way. I have no desktop icons and no wallpaper on one of my computers, but I have the start toolbar and tray icons, and I have access to task manager and all my programs. However, when I right click on the desktop and click arrange icons all the options are grayed out. Also, I cannot change the wallpaper - it remains solid blue (or any other color) no matter what I try. Neither picture wallpapers nor tiled wallpapers appear. I've included the hijack-this log below.
There are no icons or taskbar on my desktop, On any account that I log in on. Cannot access task manager or start menu. How do I recover my desktop? This is a dell desktop pc, windows xp
I have a major problem. When I regularly start Windows XP home edition. It seems to run just fine, yet the mouse is at an hourglass for a good amount of time.Then, All the icons disappear, Start Menu goes away, Cannot open task manger or run anything. Computer then stalls with DLL.exe and svchost error messages.I ran a spybot scan and adaware. Only coming up with Jupilites and Smitfraud-C.Both have been cleaned.If I can find a way to transfer my HJT file from my laptop to the computer I am currently using, will posted as soon as possible.
I opened that stupid E-card virus I think. Now all i've been getting is tons of pop-ups. I read in a forum to just let it run it's course and eventually it would stop, or to do a bunch of stuff that I didn't understand. So, I ran all of my anti-virus' and ad aware and ccleaner and regcure and still I'm getting tons of popups but I was just going to be patient and let it run it's course. But now I keep getting this new message and when I close the message it ends up causing my taskbar and icons to go away. I was continually restarting my computer to get them back and thinking I would just not close the message in hopes that I could at least copy my documents over to another computer. I have not been able to do that so far and I'm freaking out. I use this computer for work. I am very new at this and this is my first post so please bear with me. I did read a few posts and realized that most people do ask for that Hijack This report thing, so I've done that and will post it next.
I have a problem with my Windows XP computer. All my icons and taskbar has dissapeared. Its usually can be fixed by opening explorer.exe which wont open. I have tried multiple ways and the only way to access programs is by task manager.I currently haven't got a HijackThis Log which I will upload a.s.a.p. There are also no viruses and no hardrive errors so I'm pretty stumped on what I should do.
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.
I logged on to my laptop this morning only to find I no longer have a start botton, nor a taskbar and all desktop icons have disappeared. I did a search and found a 2007 thread with some suggestions and none of these have worked for me. I'm working with windows xp, sp 3
About a week ago problems started happening with my screen saver. It would be normal when it first came on, and then it would start getting distorted and would have lines going through it. Then when I clicked back to the desktop all the icons on the taskbar and desktop would also be distorted and have vertical white lines going through them. Today the problem is worse since now icons in the Start menu also have the lines going through them. It now also has lines through my programs and some web pages. I haven't been able to get rid of the problem
Either the taskbar on my laptop (2 user accounts [1 admin, 1 ltd.] + inactive Guest) doesn't respond on startup or the desktop (icons) doesn't (often I can get the taskbar to respond to the mouse by switching user accounts back and forth, but then I lose access to the desktop icons). This laptop is primarily used for playing dvd movies (WinDVD 3.1).
We ended up with a virus AV8. Got rid of the file but now the start button, desktop icons and taskbar are not showing up or working. I have read a lot of the suggestions that people have been giving and I renamed the explorer.exe and can use that, but can't get my desktop restored nor my taskbar back.
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.
Whenever I boot up my computer, in Normal mode, and I click on my or any other username, it takes at least 3 minutes to log in. Then, after it finally logs in, my taskbar nor my Desktop icons appear, but Explorer.exe is already loaded. This happens for all usernames, and I created a new one. I can load Task Manager, and I can load individual programs and files from there. If I kill Explorer.exe and then restart it, it still doesn't work. I have no Restore Points, by the way. I can go on Safe Mode, which is how I'm posting this. There is like a 10% chance that its a virus, but I highly doubt it due to the fact that im a computer "guru" and I maintain my computer well. Im guessing its just corrupted registry settings. Also, I cant run HijackThis in Normal nor in Safe Mode, and I tried reinstalling too.
Right before I was rebooting my computer yesterday, I got a dll error (i couldn't read the error it flashed to quickly).Since rebooting the taskbar & desktop icon keep flashing on/off. I saw another poster on here that was having a similar problem: http://tinyurl.com/2ahlmh, but I couldn't reply to that post.I ran vundofix, sdfix, combofix, and gmer.
I am having some problems with my computer recently In the taskbar i don't see the remove hardware or the audio icon. Picture I was wondering where the icons disappeared. Also my computer is a bit slow, any way to make it a little faster?
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.
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
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 can't seem to get any desktop icons or taskbar to show when i log in to xp. It happens for all users. I also can't use ctrl-alt-del to get to task administrator (it has been disabled for some reason-was never a prob before so I didn't fix it...) All this happened the next startup after doing a full system scan with norton and a spybot check (the spybot downloaded a few new updates too).
So I have no taskbar nor icons on the desktop. Except that all works very well... I have access to the programs and all my documents via the taskmanager. I've been told, by the technicians at the shop where I had bought this pc, that they have heard of such cases often recently, but they didn't try to understand why, they just formatted the hd and reinstalled windows. I am wondering if there's a way to repair this. I've read on some forums that osme adware called "sysu.exe" , "ddm", causes such a problem, bu I haven't those apparently. Otherwise norton , and spybot s&d don't detect anything that might cause this either...
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'm having a problem with my desktop. I keep placing my icons where I want them on the desktop and every time I either reboot or refresh the desktop they jumble up again. The only thing I have checked in the properties menu is "Show Desktop Icons". I have installed "Icon Restore" and it works until I run a program, open a browser, or even open "My Computer". When I close whatever I am working on and return to the desktop, everything is jumbled again. In addition, the taskbar properties keep changing on reboot. On the Properties menu I have "Keep the taskbar on top" etc., "Group similar" etc., and "Show Quick Launch" checked. I also have several items in the notifications area set to "always show". On reboot, the "Show Quick Launch" becomes unchecked, and the notification area items either change to "hide when inactive" or become part of the "Past Items" list.
