blank desktop / missing shell?

[Guest]

okay, i really DID hunt around and try several of the solutions I found on
various
sites, including here.

Customer machine , had spyware and viruses about a week ago. Ran SpyBot,
AdAware,
and Microsoft spyware tools... looked reasonable. (1 spyware program left
behind
I wanted to research the solution and get back to it)

Today (several days later) the machine boots and there is NO windows
desktop, start button, taskbar, nothin.

SAFE MODE logged in as administrator, same thing.

I can run task manager and launch certain programs for example regedit and
Norton AV interface. (and Hijack This and spybot and ad aware etc.) nothing
points to spyware any longer. The shell integration is hosed somewhere and I
cant find it.

explorer.exe gives the message "cannot find explorer.exe"

iexplore gives same thing

tho both executables are there and look healthy.

I tried these solutions so far. (after running Norton AV and cleaning up the
7 viruses
it found... kids)

ensured that the Remote Procedure Call service is logging in using local
service
account.

looked at winlogon/shell registry entry to see that it was pointing to
explorer.exe

imported the "exefile" registry entries from a known good XP machine in to
the troubled
one.

replaced c:\windows\explorer.exe with a good copy from another machine

DID an IN-place upgrade from the XP CD. (!)

same results...

ANybody have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

To repair all system files, go to Start/Run, and type (or paste in): SFC /SCANNOW (see: Description of Windows XP and Windows Server
2003 System File Checker (Sfc.exe): http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310747 )

 

[Guest]

Mark L Ferguson: Thanks for the reply... though not noted , that was one of
the things I tried as well...

I have since moved the partitions around and have done a clean reinstall to
a new partition, but I am keeping an eye out for a solution, and could boot
to the old trashed Windows installation if I wnated to test.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Boot to the XP setup CD, and press 'r' for recovery console, run the command : CHKDSK D: /R where d: is the bad partition