Desktop & taskbar not showing up and as a result a number of programs doesn't run

[mihafiz]

Hi,

I fell into a serious problem.
I use Vista Home premium on my MSI notebook.
Now it doesnot show up desktop and taskbar and many programs like yaho
messenger, DU meter etc. stops or gives error. How do I bring back m
desktop and taskbar? I tried system restore but it did not solve th
problem.

Now here is what happened just before this problem showed up:
As I was leaving for my university I turned off the system. I close
the lid, took off the power cable and went away. As it was rainin
heavily, I did not feel like taking it along. After about four hours,
came back to find the orange battery light blinking indicating that th
system had gone hibernating upon reaching critical battery. I plugge
in the cable and resumed windows.
As soon as I logged into my user, I found that the system was askin
whether to close firefox and MS word 2007 that were open at the time
intended to shut down the system. I guess, over security is no
appreciable. Anyway, i clicked yes and it took some time t
automatically close the two programs which otherwise would have take
me seconds to manually close them. As I waited, the screen was littl
darkened as usual by that windows message. I clicked twice on th
taskbar. It flashed on both occasions and then shut down.

Then I restarted the system. Everything was just as before until th
login screen came. It was normal too. I logged in...now it took mor
time than usual showing the 'Welcome' message and then a blank scree
came up and a second later my documents folder showed up with n
desktop and taskbar. The problem commenced. I tried to open du mete
and yahoo messenger and a few other programs using the task manager
all failed. MSN messenger opened, MS office opened and a few othe
regular ones opened fine from the task manager. However, after tryin
several tens of times, i couldn't bring the desktop or the taskba
back. I tried system restore to about a month earlier too but nothin
happened. I tried to log in as another valid user, it gave exactly th
same problem. I created a new user and then logged in... the sam
problem.

I really need help now. I do not want to re-install the OS and g
through the pain of installing the drivers again and all thos
registration and stuffs.

I really need help to get back the desktop and taskbar.
Please do help if you can.

 

[BurrWalnut]

This may help:
Click the Windows Orb (Start), type regedit, press Enter and navigate to
registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. In the right pane, make sure there is a REG_SZ
named Shell and it has a value of "explorer.exe" (no quotation marks). If
it’s not there, create it by clicking Edit > New > String Value then
right-click it and key in explorer.exe then restart the computer.

If the Windows Orb (Start) is missing, open regedit via Task Manager by
pressing Ctrl + Shift +Esc then on the Applications Tab click ‘New Task’ at
the bottom, type regedit.exe and press Enter.

 

[mihafiz]

Thanks a million!!!

I tried BurrWalnut's solution before going on to trying Hans-Georg
Michna's solution.

BurrWalnut's solution worked with a little modification and I did not
have to go through the repair installation procedure

The registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon already existed with the value "Explorer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Config\csrss.exe" in Shell REZ_SG with out the quotes.
I just changed it to "explorer.exe" and restarted the system.

Thanks again.

 

[BurrWalnut]

If the key I suggested you changed was OK, what key did you change?

I need to know for my records.

Thank you.

 

[mihafiz]

The key was exactly the one that you had mentioned.

I did not change change the key, rather the value that already existe
was needed to be changed to just explorer.exe (the one that yo
mentioned).

The value that existed was "Explorer.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Config\csrss.exe" without the quotes.

What was that extra bit of parameter doing there?

Thanks again. I would have never noticed it if it wasn't for yo
assistance.

 

[Richard]

Unfortunately this solution does not work for Windows XP.

 

[Paul Montgomery]

Unfortunately this solution does not work for Windows XP.

Are you lost? This isn't an XP discussion area.