explorer.exe occasionally does not load

[Mike @ Alleluia!]

I administer a network of about 25 PCs and users. I occasionally see users
have a problem with just the wallpaper displaying at login and no icons or
task bar.

I have searched and found many threads on this subject, but no solution.

The problem is not consistent and can occur when any user logs into any
machine. It seems random and can occur to anyone at any time at any PC. All
PCs use XP Pro (updated) and the server is Server 2003 (also updated).

Of course, I can use Ctrl/Shift/Esc to bring up the Task Manager and click
File --> New Task (Run...) to start the explorer.exe process manually. That
makes everyone happy, but I want to resolve the issue so it does not happen
anymore.

Yes, it started within the past year and may be related to an update in
January, but others have said that uninstalling those possible updates has
not resolved the issue.

Yes, the registry is set to explorer.exe at the appropriate location.

Yes, I have tried recreating a user profile for one user who has experienced
this on her PC (the new profile was for unrelated reasons), and she still has
the problem.

Yes, the issue has occurred on PC rebuilds, so that is not the sole solution
either.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

Thank you for your help.
Mike

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

see if the
shell' variable is set to explorer.exe
in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

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[Mike @ Alleluia!]

Yes, it is. I didn't write in the whole registry key path, but that is where
it is set to explorer.exe.

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

then install this
on a few of the
pc's to run at
boot time:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx

then monitor them
over a day or two
to see if it helped
retained the focus
on explorer.

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<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[Mike @ Alleluia!]

I installed it on 2 common PCs that experience this problem. The program si
not showing any defragmentation in any of the files it monitors. From
reading the porduct information, I don't see any benefit of running it at the
next startup, but I will try it anyway. Are there any other suggestions to
resolve this issue?