Desktop missing! 3

[tazzzkitty]

Yesterday, when I turned on my computer, I had no desktop. No icons, no taskbar, and could not right click. I could only get to things through task manager. But then it seems like everything works fine when I get to it.

I have Windows XP and it was updated. I changed no options that I can recall. Not in themes or anything. I had no restore points to use and I did virus scans that caught nothing.

Eventually, I decided to try to reinstall Windows XP. When it was finished reinstalling, it came up fine, and the desktop was there. But it was VERY slow, so I decided to reboot. Then it came up with no desktop AGAIN.

I still could find nothing wrong and I have since reinstalled one more time and the same thing happened. The first time it came up with the desktop, but then after restarting, no desktop.

Also, if I click on the start menu/taskbar options icon in Control Panel, it won't even open.

Other things I've tried:

Restarting in safe mode: I had a desktop. All options I checked while there, seemed normal.

clicking explorer.exe in the windows folder: it looked like it was trying to run, but then quit.

Chkdisc found no errors

Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated! Thanx.

 

[onlymel]

tazzzkitty: - - I had the very same happen to me only 9 days a go. Like you I tried all that you tried. Finally got it all working again simply by reformatting and instead of booting from floppy I changed the bios to boot from the CD rom. - - This did the trick.

Mel in the UK.

 

[tazzzkitty]

Well, thanks for your advice, but since I'd really rather not completely erase my hard drive if I don't have to, I tried something else. I loaded a shell program, Geoshell, that creates it's own taskbars. And it worked. I can use those taskbars fine. And then I also found a place in that taskbar called open desktop. And if I click it, then it opens up the regular windows desktop. But it only stays there until I minimize or close all windows open. Of course, I can then open it up again.

Also, one thing I noticed in task manager, that the process that seems to run while I have a desktop, but not when I didn't, is iexplorer.exe. It runs when I have added Geoshell now. But I uninstalled that, to check my regular desktop again, and it disappeared completely after rebooting, and iexplorer.exe wasn't running in processes anymore. Unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm just going to stick with Geoshell, since I really don't want to have to erase my whole hard drive and reinstall.

 

[onlymel]

Oh well, at least you got it back. Some good info that re: Geoshell. I have copied and saved it for future threads. When it happened to me, it was easy to reformat 'cos I only had a small amount of stuff on. - - Don't know if you have heard this but apparently if anyone runs an illegal copy of XP then within 30 days of using it certain things start to happen and one of those is what we experienced. So I guess it happens to legal ones too huh?

Mel in the UK

 

[HalfMoon]

Hello,

I have been battling this problem for over a month and refuse to reformat (so far). I have tried restores, virus checking, minor hacks... Once I got things back by switching to a different user, changing the background and switching back and there was my desktop. But the next time I booted it was gone and the same method would not work again. I took the suggestion above and installed Geoshell. It was good to see things back, but I like my ugly desktop so I went into Geoshell/Utilities and ran 'Set Shell = Expoder.bat', rebooted and my desktop was restored. Haven't rebooted after that yet, but I set a restore point. At least it is going in the right direction. Good luck.

 

[tazzzkitty]

I found out another thing to do a while ago with Geoshell. Use the quick link that says Show Desktop on one of the Geoshell bars and your regular desktop pops up. If you then go to task manager and close the Geoshell desktop, your regular desktop stays and your computer is like normal. This is what I've been doing, and though it is slightly annoying, it's better than reformatting. But please let me know if the last thing you tried works after you reboot Halfmoon!

 

[hefe]

this isnt a fix, but maybe a little time saver to get your desktop back quicker.
boot without geoshell and when you get to the blank desktop, do a ctrl-alt-del go to task manager, then, under applications click "new task" and type "explorer"

also, install windows from the same disk onto another pc....does it do the same thing(bad copy maybe)

ohh...one other thing...go to start > run type "msconfig"...go to services tab....be sure "computer browser" is checked.

or, if its a legal copy...call microsoft.

what the hell...i gave it a shot ..right
good luck

 

[bcastner]

I would be curious of the results of a Start, Run, SFC /Scannow.

To me what you are seeing is some damage to explorer.exe.

 

[tazzzkitty]

If you're talking about a scandisk, then I did it and it said it found no errors. But I did try clicking on explorer.exe when I had no desktop at all and nothing happened. So you're probably right. It is something to do with that.

 

[bcastner]

No, I am talking about the Microsoft utility that checks the integrity and versions of all system files, called the system file checker.

Start button, Run, and in the box that appears type:

SFC /Scannow

You will likely be prompted for your XP CD.

 

[jfryer]

Did you you by any chance have Active Desktop running before you lost your desktop?

And I am with bcastner, the results of a "SFC /Scannow" would be most interesting. Because if XP (and its files) are fine then logic dictates you should have a desktop. So going by that logic (computers and logic ... yeah I know) since you don't havea desktop it is quite possible one or more of your system files has gone screwy.

It is possible it repair an XP installation without needing to re-format the HD.

Let us know the result of the SFC first though

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There is no magic, only onions
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[tazzzkitty]

Well, I did that SFC and it ran all the way through and it told me nothing afterwards. Is it supposed to show me a report of some sort? I am just assuming it found nothing wrong, since it didn't tell me there was.

 

[bcastner]

Sorry to keep bothering you, but could you now run a QfeCheck:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=282784

 

[linney]

To see any results from SFC you should look in your Event Viewer under either Applications or System folder. What other errors do you have in the Event Viewer?

It might be possible that your profile for your username has become corrupted. This article would assist in repairing it.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q318/0/11.asp

Error Message: Windows Cannot Load Your Profile Because It May Be Corrupted (Q318011)

Earlier on you mentioned that Safe Mode produced a Desktop, perhaps creating another user profile or fixing your original may work.

 

[seechance]

This seams to become more of a problem! This Geoshell seams very ineresting. Can you tell me where to download it?

The missing Icons and Taskbar my be the result of Windows XP automatic update. Please advise if during the Blaster out-brake you did a update. Just trying to gather info.

If you found a solucation please advise.

I have had to format and reinstall to solve this problem.

Chance,

 

[tazzzkitty]

Well, I found a new solution after my 30 day free trial with Aston shell ran out. Which is

http://www.astonshell.com,

btw. It worked pretty good, but had a few small problems for me. For Geoshell it's

http://www.geoshell.com

So what I do now is turn on the computer and it has no desktop. So I hit ctrl-alt-delete and it brings up task manager. Go into processes and end explorer.exe which runs the desktop. Then I go into run and run explorer.exe again and it brings up the normal desktop. So it's like it tries to run the desktop but something fails and it doesn't bring it up all the way the first time.

So that is a little bit of a pain, but it works and only takes a few seconds to do. Hope that helps you!

 

[OzCDN]

Just a bit of background here - and forgive me if you already know this.

The desktop with all the icons and the start bar is just a program like any other ... if this program is not running then you get a blank screen. This program is called explorer.exe.

All of the advice above and work arounds are perfectly correct but the root of the problem is that the explorer.exe is not running. It is either not being started or it is crashing after it starts (although explorer.exe is supposed to restart if it crashes).

There is a registry setting which selects what your shell program is going to be (this is what the program that displays your desktop is called) ... it doesn't have to be explorer.exe but there are not a lot of other choices for windows and it is the only one Micro$oft supplies. The registry key is:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Inside there is a string value called "shell" and its value should be "explorer.exe".

To get into your registry you use regedit or regedt32 but it you didn't already know that then you shouldn't be messing in there anyway.

Long story short ... check that registry entry and see if it has been changed.

Later ...

 

[jtarin]

I'm with OzCDN on this one. I used to be a Litestep fanatic back in Win 95 and 98 and the registry solution is one I am familiar with. There is a registry back-up tool that you should look into called "ERUNT". Works wonders, but only when you have a good copy to back up.

 

[bcastner]

I also am with OzCDN. The original thread bothered me as either explorer.exe was replaced by a trojan/virus whatever, or the registry call was replaced, or some DLL was missing, or all three.

An SFC /Scannow should replace explorer, a restore point should work if available, and registry restore would also work for any registry change.

Any decent anti-virus software would catch the registry change, and would catch the attempt at changing explorer.exe.

 

[tazzzkitty]

Well, I'm pretty sure it's not a virus. I have scanned several times with several different scanners. I also checked the registry and it's set to explorer.exe. Which I knew it would because it does try to run explorer.exe on startup. In fact the desktop tries to load, but it doesn't load all the way. It stops with the background and mouse pointer. Then I have to kill the process and run it again and then it loads all the way.