No Icons Or Task Bar Visible On Start Up!!!

[gardynbean]

all i have is my desktop wallpaper and my curser. i can hit alt/control/delete and access netscape thru the task manager to access the web, but that's it. it seems all of my desktop files are still available, because i can see them when i browse for files to run on the task manager, but i don't know why i don't see anything. somebody, please help me. what is GOING ON?!

christine

[photolady]

gardynbean Welcome to Virtual Dr!!

Now, have you an xp cd? If you do, you can do a sfc /scannow and this might fix your problem. Go to the Start Menu, to Run and type sfc /scannow and hit ok or your enter key. Let it do its thing. It won't tell you it did anything but it should put your icons and task bar back.

[pcpage4]

Do what you did before, but instead of entering "netscape", enter "explorer"

Make sure explorer exisits in the registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Go to start, run, and enter "regedit" follow the tree to the above location and add "Explorer.exe" as the value for the "Shell" key.

[Tufenuf]

christine, Another possible fix is to go to the link below and scroll down to line 195 (right column), and download the "Restore Desktop Icons and Taskbar" .vbs file. Save it to your hard drive (you may want to right click and use Save Target As). Double
click the vbs file. You will be prompted when the script is done.

"NOTE: If your anti-virus software warns you of a "malicious" script, this is normal if you have "Script Safe" or similar technology enabled. These scripts are not malicious, but they do make changes to the System Registry".

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Tufenuf

[gardynbean]

HELLO ALL! thanks for such quick responses - ok, here's what i did, one by one:



PCPAGE4 : went into registry, followed the path you provided, but did not see explorer.exe (is this bad?) within the winlogon directory. i did add the shell key and the explorer value, but when i restarted, it didn't do anything. please let me know if i need to delete what i added.

TUFENUF : downloaded the .vbs file, received all the msg's you mentioned, double-clicked to run, but nothing happened. did i do something wrong?

PHOTOLADY : this is a hand me down computer, so no XP disk - do i have to buy another one? and if i do get one, will it reinstall my entire OS and will i lose all previously stored data? or will the disk know to patch whatever it is that's missing???

your responses are greatly appreciated. i live, breathe, and work on this thing, and now i feel so lost. thanks again for helping this computer fool out!

christine

[gardynbean]

oh yeah, PCPAGE4, forgot to mention that i attempted to launch explorer thru the task manager, but it's saying it can't find the .exe...

[dunedin]

Hi,

Open Taskmanager again and if you can see
sysu.exe
end it with Task Manager

Then delete folder: C:\Programs\ddm

If you get running again download, update and run the following free program
Microsoft Windows Antispyware
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...e/default.mspx

Elaine

[pcpage4]

If that's the problem as dunedin suggests, look here:
http://www.tasklist.org/task_sysu_exe_3450.html

For now, try downloading and using an alternative windowing manager like geoshell at
http://www.geoshell.com/
Geoshell has been around since I think 2002. There are others though you can check out at:
http://www.shellfront.org/

After you have a windowing manager you can work with, open iexplore and run an online scanner. Here are some choices of quality companies that have been in the business for more than 15 years:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (best all around)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/
http://skaner.mks.com.pl/skaner.html (best if you know Polish)

Then download spybot (do google) and check for and remove spyware and other harmful software.

Let us know what milcious software was on your machine. Maybe one of use can send you a fresh copy of explorer.exe, or perhaps you might find yourself happy with a third party shell.

[gardynbean]

OMG, i would LOVE a fresh copy of explorer.exe - if anyone who is reading this can set me up, i would be forever greatful. i'm also going to try the 3rd party shell sites, pcpage4. thank you so much for helping. oh, woops - my email is [email protected]. geez, i hope no one tries to trick me with a super trojan this way... i guess i'll have to learn the hard way.

[pcpage4]

I will be sending you a copy soon. In theory it should work, unless Microsoft does something silly I do not know about.

When you get the copy, put it in the "c:\windows" folder. Executable should be about 980k (almost a meg.) I will zip it down to 378kb (About 1/3 meg)

[pcpage4]

You will need to rename the file I gave you. My email account does not allow the sending of executables so I had to fool it.

Unzip the file and put it on a floppy. Then go to taskmanager and run "CMD"

Type:
"CD\" [ENTER]
"A:" [ENTER]
"ren explorer.txt explorer.exe" [ENTER]
"copy explorer.exe c:\windows" [ENTER]
"shutdown -r -t 1 -f" [ENTER]

Windows XP should restart and you should now have explorer, unless you had installed a 3rd party shell. If that, then uninstall the 3rd party shell. Then check the registry key that I posted eariler.

If this is difficult for you, let me know. I could setup something where you download a file to the computer and it installs automatically. But I will need time to put it together.

[gardynbean]

ok, we're getting there - i can run internet explorer from the task manager, but i still have no icons or taskbar when i attempt to restart with explorer.exe in place, so i had to reinstall geoshell - even with geoshell, i am unable to view any icons on my desktop, but i do get the taskbar... what could be blocking the icons from being visible?

thanks for chugging along with me, jason.

[gardynbean]

the reason i bring up being able to run internet explorer is because i wasn't able to do that before following your instructions.

[Tufenuf]

gardynbean, This is just a WAG but right click your Desktop, put your cursor over "Arrange Icons By", then checkmark "Show Desktop Icons".

Tufenuf

[gardynbean]

what is "WAG"?

and i'll give that a try too... when i get home. thanks tufenuf. i hope something good happens soon - not having a fully functional computer at home is seriously stressful. sheeesh!