explorer doesn't start at startup

[Guest]

When I boot my win xp professional laptop, it simply comes up to an empty
desktop. I have a cursor, but nothing else. I can let it sit for hours and
that's how it will remain. I do alt/ctrl/delete and from taskmgr I run
explorer. That brings up things on my desktop and some things in my startup.
I can then log off my current user, log back in and everything comes up
okay. Can anyone help me figure out how to debug this?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

his technique is what you want.

Error Message Windows Cannot Load Your Profile Because It May Be Corrupted:
Go to: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318011

 

[WTC]

Can you verify the following registry key?

[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
Name: Shell
Type: REG_SZ
Value: Explorer.exe

Also can you create a new user account and see if this problem occurs in the
new user account?