Windows Vista Shell replaced with Windows Explorer

[Guest]

When I log into Windows, the general shell i.e. the task bar, start menu etc,
do not load. Instaed the Windows explorer loads, i.e. the file browser. I
know that the Windows base shell that all other program's shell sits on top
of is named explorer.exe which is the same name for the windows explorer. I'm
not sure how to fix this. I remember back in Windows 98 or NT there was a
file that one could edit to change the file that windows shell starts on, but
I don't know where this is in Vista (I want to find this and point it back to
the correct explorer)

Thanks for any information available

 

[Guest]

In Vista, the registry editor should show

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

with the value name "shell" having value data "explorer.exe". (Yes, in
Windows 98 the shell was defined in the sytem.ini file, shell=explorer.exe).