I lost all icons, taskbar and start-button, just blue desktop 1

[virpima]

I have Windows2000 Professional, Asus motherboard with Pentium 1 G. It has run ok long time, but something happened. When system boots it has no any icons, no taskbar, no start button, just only clear nice blue desktop, not blue screen of dead. I can hear sound playing when windows starting, but nothing never coming to screen. If I going to safe mode, it shows eplorer.exe in Dos command console, but if I trying to close it , it never finish booting to safe mode. I dont like to format harddrive, is it any way I can fix that problem?

 

[x2]

use the win2000 cd to repair. Did you make a emergency repair disk?

 

[jdeane]

when you have the blue desktop press ctrl-alt-del and select task manager.

Check to see if Explorer.EXE is listed under the processes, if not goto File, select New Task and in the open dialog box enter explorer.exe

See if this will at least get you the desktop back so you can run diags.

 

[Teamaker]

These people seem to have the same prob

thread616-441801

 

[Ger2111]

OK I think this is the problem. Right click on the desktop. Click on show web content. Now again right click on the desktop, go to active directory and there is an option to show desktop icons. Click this and you should see your icons. Now you can turn off the option in active desktop to show web content and your desktop icons will remain.
Let me know...

 

[d3crypt4]

That's a popular one for catching people out Ger, but it wouldn't explain why his Task Bar wasn't showing. Unless someone's 'pranked' the machine and hidden you icons as Ger suggests aswell as resizing your taskbar right to the bottom. Other than that, it almost certainly has to be an explorer.exe problem, so my first step would be as jdeane suggested.

 

[CSummers]

this has something to do with a virus attacking explorer.exe

I am working through the same thing. In the winnt\system32 folder there will be an explorer.exe that is 528k - that is the trojan explorer.exe

If I boot up and choose the f8 option, go into vga mode I see the desktop. However, going into Windows 2000 without going into vga mode will result in no desktop icons, no task bar, no start at all.

I do not know where explorer.exe is supposed to be

 

[CSummers]

okay, got it fixed. Go into your bios and make sure your video settings are right. Mine was an HP 503n and the video was set to PCI- should have been AGP. This is in addition to the virus writing a new explorer.exe in the winnt\system32 folder

 

[d3crypt4]

Explorer.exe is in the \WINNT folder by default and is 238kb after SP3.

 

[virpima]

I didnt have repair disk, task manager does not list explorer.exe, if i start it in new dialog box it flashes couple seconds and same blue screen still appears. I found Nimda virus on harddrive and quarantined it, but same blue screen still appears. Also booting vga is already AGP.. I still working on it...Does Nimda makes troubles like that?

 

[x2]

maybe....
have you tried to run sfc? (open task manager- new task- type cmd- enter if dos shell opens put win 2000 cd in tray and type sfc- enter this will give options.
-----
System File Checker

The system file checker utility, Sfc.exe, allows administrators to scan all protected files to verify their versions. Sfc can also check and fix the cache directory.


The following is the command-line syntax for Sfc.

SFC options

Options


/SCANNOW
Scans all protected system files immediately.
/SCANONCE
Scans all protected system files at the next boot.
/SCANBOOT
Scans all protected system files at every boot.
/REVERT
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: Return to default settings.
/CANCEL
Windows Me, Windows 2000: Cancels all pending scans of protected system files.
/QUIET
Windows Me, Windows 2000: Replaces all incorrect file versions without prompting the user.
/ENABLE
Windows Me, Windows 2000: Enables WFP for standard operation.
/PURGECACHE
Empties the file cache and scans all protected system files.
/CACHESIZE=x
Sets the file cache size. The default size of the cache is 0x32 (50 MB).
Sfc sets the following registry value:

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

For more information, see WFP Registry Values

 

[x2]

ok check this thread with same issue & fix!
thread616-441801

 

[Teamaker]

That's right x2 i posted that ages ago but must of been ignored. It does seem to be exactly the same prob.

Thread616-441801

 

[virpima]

Ok, I got it working. I had extra explorer.exe in my c:\ ,I deleted that. I copy explorer.exe from other system and replaced to c:\winnt to this trouble system and run it once in dialog box. That made it working finally.

Thanks for all helpfull hints!