Losing Taskbar,Desktop, etc

[Joseph Macari]

I have been having a strange problem with XP Pro on a Compaq notebook
lately.
I installed XP, (networked thru a hub), everything works fine. I log on as
Administrator, etc. As soon as I travel with the notebook (disconnecting
the network cable), I lose my taskbar, desktop, Start, etc, i.e., just have
background. I have to start explorer.exe in "new task" in order to get the
desktop functionality back. When I do return the notebook to the network
again, I still don't have the Explorer, etc. functionality. This has
happened at least five times recently; the only fix is to reinstall the
factory image (new install). I have tried it with the network just set up
to connect to the internet (router)...same thing, whenever I disconnect
network cable from notebook, I lose my dewsktop, taskbar, etc. I have tried
using the taskbar repair tool to no avail, tried creating another user
account, still the same problem. I may just chuck XP and use
Win2000Pro...before I do, any suggestions??

-Joe

 

[Galen]

In Joseph Macari <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I have been having a strange problem with XP Pro on a Compaq notebook
lately.
I installed XP, (networked thru a hub), everything works fine. I log
on as Administrator, etc. As soon as I travel with the notebook
(disconnecting the network cable), I lose my taskbar, desktop, Start,
etc, i.e., just have background. I have to start explorer.exe in
"new task" in order to get the desktop functionality back. When I do
return the notebook to the network again, I still don't have the
Explorer, etc. functionality. This has happened at least five times
recently; the only fix is to reinstall the factory image (new
install). I have tried it with the network just set up to connect to
the internet (router)...same thing, whenever I disconnect network
cable from notebook, I lose my dewsktop, taskbar, etc. I have tried
using the taskbar repair tool to no avail, tried creating another
user account, still the same problem. I may just chuck XP and use
Win2000Pro...before I do, any suggestions??

-Joe

Take the performance hit (it's small actually, usually just about 8 MB at
most) and run it as a separate process....

Explorer as a Separate Process :
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/tips/sep_explorer.html

The above is assuming you're 99.9% sure you're malware free... There's no
such thing as 100% really. Not if you turn the computer on at any rate.

Malware Cleaning:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/malwarefix.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Joseph Macari]

Did what you suggested..... it still is not loading desktop, taskbar,
etc......I may install Win2000 and see if it still has this specific problem
with that OS.........as far as malware, the last install of XP was only
three hours old; other PC's on the network (2 others on a home network) have
no problems....
-Joe

 

[Galen]

In Joseph Macari <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Did what you suggested..... it still is not loading desktop, taskbar,
etc......I may install Win2000 and see if it still has this specific
problem with that OS.........as far as malware, the last install of
XP was only three hours old; other PC's on the network (2 others on a
home network) have no problems....
-Joe

Instead of running explorer.exe from the command prompt the way you have
been pound this in instead:

Restore from the command prompt:
Type the below (or cut/paste) without the quotes:
"%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe"

Restore to an earlier time - just prior to this happening - if available.


--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/

"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Joseph Macari]

Thanks Galen for all your help. I installed Win2000 last night; got all my
drivers,etc off the Compaq site (notebook is EvoN1000v), installed all my
software, service packs, etc. Everything is working fine; i can connect to
my home network, disconnect and reconnect and nothing is lost..so I will
stay with the Win2000 setup.
Its funny, one of my home machines has XP Pro sp2 on it with no problems
whatsoever. I believe the problems with the notebook were stemming from
something going astray with the User accts, etc. when I would connect and
disconnect from the network......

thanks again-
Joe