Lost desktop after restart - blank screen, no taskbar, no start me

[Guest]

Our PC was running sluggishly last week, as if additional programs were
running or stuck in the background. Although I run Norton antivirus and
firewall, which are up to date, I thought a virus was possible. Scan found
no virus. I ran HijackThis! and saw no unusual spyware processes.

However, TaskManager showed Napster as being in process, and was unable to
terminate it. I decided to restart to terminate any unwanted running
processes.

On restart, my desktop was completely blank, with no taskbar and no start
menu. The only aspect of the desktop that loaded was the background
wallpaper. I was able to access the taskmanager with Ctl-Alt-Del but nothing
else. I attempted a system restore, with the same result. The PC will
restart in safe mode, but I can't find anything unusual there either. I
attempted a restart to "Last Known Good Configuration" with the same result.
Lastly, I attempted to reinstall Windows XP and, sadly, got the same result.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I wish i knew what napster is. however, norton can cause irritating problems,
so i vended mcafee instead and removed norton products except norton system
works. that is a good diagnostic and easy fix-it tool.

you cannot have one antiviral active when you run another one. you have to
disable your norton av, then run the auxiliary antiviral program. a real good
free one is at <www.trendmicro.com>. you take "house doctor" and do a full
scan. it is such a good company that if mcafee causes me problems, i will
just buy ITS program.

i'd call microsoft to reinstall xp. i hope you do not have to format your
hard drive!!! hope anything i said was of assistance to you. karen

 

[Rich Barry]

Time for Clean Install. Save important data first.

 

[Guest]

What's Clean Install? And how is it done?
I am having same problem as described above, except i do not have napster
issue.