Blank Desktop

[Diane Walker]

We setup dual boot for Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP
Professional. For some reasons, when we boot up to Windows 2000, the
screen came up blank. We do not see any icons on the desktop. The only
thing on the desktop is the mouse cursor. Is there a way to fix this
problem?

Thanks.

Diane

 

[John John]

Can you start Explorer.exe from the Task Manager?

How did you do the dual boot, did you install the operating systems in
their own separate partitions?

John

 

[Diane Walker]

Thanks for your prompt response and information.

How do you start Explorer.exe from the Task Manager?

I installed the operating systems on their own separate partitions. When PC
boots, I select the computer to boot to Windows 2000 Professional. I was
able to boot to Windows 2000 Professional before. I do not know what has
changed. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.
Thank you.

Diane

 

[John John]

In the Task Manager top menu select File | New Task (Run...) and enter
explorer.exe in the box.

John

 

[Diane Walker]

I will try it tonight and let you know the status. Thanks very much for
your help.

 

[Diane Walker]

It works!!! I had to point to c:\winnt\servicepackfiles\i386\explorer.exe.
The icon for My Computer was changed to the flag icon. But, it does not
bother me. I can see all my drives.

When I open Outlook Express, it gave me the error message "Outlook Express
could not be started because MSOE.DLL could not be located." Other than
those two problems, everything works normally. Is there a way to fix
Outlook Express? Do you have any ideas what happened? Thanks very much.

Diane

 

[Diane Walker]

I rebooted the computer and still got the blank desktop with a mouse cursor.
Then, I opened Task Manager and started Explorer.exe. The icons were
displayed on the desktop. But, the icon for My Computer was changed. I
still got the same error message when I opened Outlook Express.

Thanks.

Diane

 

[John John]

Explorer.exe should be in the installation's WINNT folder, try starting
that one, not the one in the servicepackfiles folder. Explorer should
have launched from Task Manager without needing to navigate to the
containing folder.

Look in the registry at:

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

Entry: Shell
Data Type: REG_SZ

Does the shell value have Explorer.exe as the default shell?

John

 

[Diane Walker]

Thanks for your prompt response and information. I will look at the
registry and get back to you.

When I typed Explorer.exe, it said it could not find the file. I searched
Explorer.exe on drive C and it only found it Explorer.exe under
c:\winnt\servicepackfiles\i386. Is it OK to copy Explorer.exe to C:\winnt?
Then, reboot the computer.

Thanks.

Diane

 

[John John]

That is probably the cause of the Explorer problem. Explorer is
probably set as the wanted shell in the registry but if it can't be
found in the expected location then it can't be started.

So, yes, copy the Explorer.exe file from the
c:\winnt\servicepackfiles\i386 folder to the C:\winnt folder and reboot
the computer and see if that takes care of the problem.

I don't know what happened when you installed the Windows XP dual boot,
it should not have touched or changed any of the files in the Windows
2000 WINNT folder.

John

 

[Diane Walker]

Thanks very much for your prompt response and suggestions. I will copy
Explorer.exe to C:\WINNT and let you know the status.

Thanks.

Diane

 

[Diane Walker]

John

You fixed my problem!!! By copying Explorer.exe to C:\WINNT, all my icons
are displayed again. I was able to open Outlook Express without any
problems. The icon for My Computer came back to normal. You are great!!!
I don't know how to thank you. But, thank you very much for your
assistance.

Diane

 

[John John]

You're welcome, glad to see that you got it fixed.

John