I have a computer that has Windows XP Home on it. In the
about 2 days ago, when I selected my name to login, the
desktop will not come up. It will show my wallpaper, but
no icons or menu bar. I can press CTRL/ALT/DEL, and go to
processes. If I stop the activator.exe process, the
desktop will come up. I'm not sure if I stopped any other
processes if the computer would come up, but I tried
several attempts and each time I would stop the
activator.exe process, the desktop would come up. Any
suggestions to what the problem could be?

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 05:39:36 -0700, Cindy Fisher wrote:

> I have a computer that has Windows XP Home on it. In the
> about 2 days ago, when I selected my name to login, the
> desktop will not come up. It will show my wallpaper, but
> no icons or menu bar. I can press CTRL/ALT/DEL, and go to
> processes. If I stop the activator.exe process, the
> desktop will come up. I'm not sure if I stopped any other
> processes if the computer would come up, but I tried
> several attempts and each time I would stop the
> activator.exe process, the desktop would come up. Any
> suggestions to what the problem could be?

Find out what activator.exe is and get rid of it. It is not a part of
Windows. Disable it in MSCONFIG until you can uninstall so that you can
reach your desktop without interruption.

If this thing adds itself back into your startup it will create a duplicate
listing in MSCONFIG. Rename the file so that it cannot load. Example:
Change activator.exe to !oldactivator.exe

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP - Windows XP Shell/User