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I am trying to troubleshoot my son's laptop, a Dell Inspiron 9100 with XP Pro. I am trying to start it in safe mode, but every time I do I get a black screen with "safe mode" in the corners, but no desktop icons or task bar. The mouse works, and I can get to the task manager by using ctrl-alt-del. I've tried it with both administrator and user accounts with the same result.
Be sure you are selecting safe mode and not Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
You can try Safe Mode with networking also.
If nothing else works, try Cntrl + Escape; it does bring up the Start menu in Standard mode, haven't had to try it in Safe mode yet but it should work.
If you are in safe mode command prompt, {type in} explorer and hit enter.
That will bring up the Taskbar.
Train's tip worked, thanks!
Your welcome.
Gots to read carefully as to what Safe Mode you arrow up to, as there are more than one. ;) :D