No Desktop, No icons, No START, No Taskbar

G

Guest

Win XP Pro boots fine but when I select one of our two users, the blue screen
appears and then hangs. No icons, no taskbar, no Start button. The cursor
is the normal pointer, not an hourglass.
The only thing I can do is bring-up Task Manager via CTRL/ALT/DEL. Poking
around in Task Manager reveals 1) no processes are running, yet 2) CPU usage
is 100%.
From there I can select File/New Task and run any program I want, so at
least I can get at stuff. And, of course, I can shut down and reboot from
there.
But I cannot get to control panel or settings. I can get to windows explore
and view my directories, folders, files. I cannot get to the internet.
BTW, a support case was opened about a week ago but I've heard nothing.
Any ideas? Thanks.
 
G

Guest

Can you launch explorer.exe from taskmanager's Run option? If so, does this
make the desktop appear?
 
G

Galen

In lousaint had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
Win XP Pro boots fine but when I select one of our two users, the blue
screen
appears and then hangs. No icons, no taskbar, no Start button. The
cursor
is the normal pointer, not an hourglass.
The only thing I can do is bring-up Task Manager via CTRL/ALT/DEL. Poking
around in Task Manager reveals 1) no processes are running, yet 2) CPU
usage
is 100%.
From there I can select File/New Task and run any program I want, so at
least I can get at stuff. And, of course, I can shut down and reboot from
there.
But I cannot get to control panel or settings. I can get to windows
explore
and view my directories, folders, files. I cannot get to the internet.
BTW, a support case was opened about a week ago but I've heard nothing.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Missing Icons and Taskbar:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/missing_desktop-icons_taskbar.html

(Kill the instance of explorer.exe and restart it.)

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

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
G

Guest

I had read other posts before posting mine. I forgot to mention that
explore.exe doesn't work. Explore.exe raises an error that the file can't be
found or does not exist.
I'll now read Galen's linked article.
 
G

Guest

I'm running the restore, now, but that might work because there's only one
restore point and that date is later than when this problem began. The
problem I've described came after a couple of weeks of major problems
resulting in a complete reinstall of XP Pro.
I don't think there's any virus, spyware or other malware involved. I was
able to run Norton and SpySweeper both of which found nothing.
I'll be back as soon as Restore finishes.
 
G

Galen

In lousaint had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I'm running the restore, now, but that might work because there's only one
restore point and that date is later than when this problem began. The
problem I've described came after a couple of weeks of major problems
resulting in a complete reinstall of XP Pro.
I don't think there's any virus, spyware or other malware involved. I was
able to run Norton and SpySweeper both of which found nothing.
I'll be back as soon as Restore finishes.
Click to expand...

Just so you know - it is explorer.exe (note the R at the end).

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

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
G

Guest

Restore has finished and system rebooted. Message is "Restored to November
7. No changes were made."
I'll now read the rest of that link. I think I saw a couple of utilities to
download and try? I'm writing this on my laptop since the desktop isn't
working. I'll download to this computer and use a USB flash drive to run
them on the bad computer.
 
G

Guest

Yes, explorer.exe.
I downloaded and ran LSP-Fix which found no problems.
BTW, when I run .exe's from Task Manager my taskbar/START button flash for
about 1 millisecond, so they're there somewhere.
I've even tried moving my mouse off the screen at the bottom in order to nab
and drag the taskbar (as I often do when it is working correctly but set to
"hide")
Now what?
I'll go back to your links to see what else they suggest.
Any more suggestions?
 
G

Galen

In Ayush had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
From Task Manager, Run explorer.exe and then start Event Viewer and see
the
errors.
eventvwr


Replied to [lousaint]'s message :
-----------------------------------------------------------
Yes, explorer.exe.
I downloaded and ran LSP-Fix which found no problems.
BTW, when I run .exe's from Task Manager my taskbar/START button
flash for about 1 millisecond, so they're there somewhere.
I've even tried moving my mouse off the screen at the bottom in order
to nab and drag the taskbar (as I often do when it is working
correctly but set to "hide")
Now what?
I'll go back to your links to see what else they suggest.
Any more suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

If you still can't get to explorer to run the MMC to load then you have
something hosed pretty decently - the next thing I'd try would be to see if
it happened in another account/profile. Run "control userpasswords" (no
quotes) to get there.

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

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
K

Kerry Brown

I just worked a customer's computer with an identical problem. It was caused
by malware. There was a lot of malware on the system but the one causing the
problem with Explorer was a randomly generated filename in the root
directory. There was other processes invloved as that file would come back
on reboot. I was able to fix it by running a cmd prompt from the task
manager and using David Lippman's MULTI_AV program to get rid of the viruses
and trojans then doing a repair install of Windows. After the repair install
Explorer would run so I then used several anti-spyware programs to clean up
the rest of the malware.

http://www.ik-cs.com/v2/got-a-virus.htm

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.lavasoft.com/

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
 
G

Galen

In Kerry Brown had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I just worked a customer's computer with an identical problem. It was
caused
by malware. There was a lot of malware on the system but the one causing
the
problem with Explorer was a randomly generated filename in the root
directory.
Click to expand...

I was starting to think I was going insane. ;) Thanks.

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

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its
solution is its own
reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
G

Guest

Thanks Kerry,
I'll now work the links you provided and follow the steps you took.
Galen, thanks for tuning in.
I'll post what happens.
 
K

Kerry Brown

You have to use MULTI_AV several times. Run each scanner in regular mode and
download all the signature files but don't bother scanning. Reboot to safe
mode and run all four scanners. Reboot to safe mode again and run all four
scanners again. It was half way through the second safe mode run before no
more malware was found. Once there is no malware reported reboot into normal
mode, then reboot into safe mode and try at least a couple of the scanners
again to confirm that nothing came back. It's a real pain, it takes many
hours, and it all has to be done through a cmd prompt from the Task Manager
as Explorer is not working. If you don't get rid of the malware first the
repair install will fail. Once Explorer is working again running the
anti-spyware programs will clean the registry of most of the entries the
malware that MULTI_AV found put in there. There may be some manual cleaning
of the registry needed as well.

Once again many thanks to David Lippman for his excellent utlility.
 
G

Guest

I will probably end up doing a destructive restore. I did get the utility
properly set-up and running. But only two of the four scans would run. The
other two raised file read errors (code 0).
When the scans do run, I'm prompted "want to pick folder to scan." I've
tried both yes and no. When I choose yes I tell it to scan local drive c:.
It appears to be scanning but without a progress meter, hourglass, etc., I
canenot tell what, if anything, is happening. All I can do is sit and watch
the yellow light and "guess" when the app has stopped running. I have no
idea how long a scan should take. I have let it run for over an hour and as
little as 5 minutes.
In neither case were there any results (.txt) in the subfolders.
I've tried to scan in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode. I even went back to
the beginning and tried to scan "now" from the DOS menu.
Any idea how long should a scan take?
I'm beginning to think it's time to hit the disk with a sledge!
 
K

Kerry Brown

Depending on how many files are on your drive and the speed of the computer
each scan can take several hours. On aslow computer with lots of files I
have seen a scan with one of the scanners take 3 or 4 hours. There is
usually a cmd prpmpt window with the progress of the scan displayed.

You may be right. If you have your data backed up it will be much quicker to
format the computer and start again. This will ensure a clean system.
 
G

Guest

OK, I bit the bullet and reloaded the computer to its original state. I'll
reload and run Norton and SpySweeper, but they didn't protect me the last
time. In fairness, they may have been disabled when/if a culprit slipped in.
I had been downloading a ton of MS Beta apps and updates all during Aug -
Oct, and Norton always interferes (evidently for good reason!).
What are the chances of the culprit surviving the reload?
I wonder if there ever was a culprit to begin with.
While writing this I just got a message from "Messenger Service" advising me
to download and install a registry cleaner from http://www.msreg.com. Should
I trust it? Hmmmmmmmmmm.
 
K

Kerry Brown

Your computer is probably already infected. If you are getting messenger
service spam you do not have a firewall. If you connect to the Internet
without a firewall it is very likely you are already infected. Download SP2
here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

Burn it to a CD. Physically disconnect your computer from the Internet.
Unplug the ethernet or modem cable. Restore your computer to the original
estate again. Install SP2. Now you can safely connect to the Internet again.
 
G

Guest

I backed-up onto a 100gb Maxtor remote, reinstalled XP Pro SP2, downloaded
and ran McAfee with the Maxtor and a Sandisk 2gb USB flash drive attached.
My restored hard drive and the Sandisk were clean. McAfee found a couple of
suspicious files on the Maxtor, plus some adware that originally came with
the computer. I deleted one of the files and quarantined the other. Ran
McAfee again and it found an adware file on the Maxtor that it missed the
first time around.
I think I'm clean and good to go, now.
I have a ton of reinstalls and MS updates to attend to: four versions of MS
Office/Developer, lots of SQL Server and VS stuff, 3rd party apps, et al.
I'm going to start with Office. I think the later versions include IIS,
..NET framework, or both (which are not installed now).
 
G

Guest

hi, I came across the same with a friends computer, you need to know the
names of certain programs in the .exe comands. my friend and his wife
divorced and when she left she deleted some things. So no taskbar or icons on
the desktop and just the rolling hills desktop picture. so Ctrl, Alt-delete
brings up the task manager, go to new task prompt and type Msconfig.exe .
That prompt you will see a choice for sytsem restore. I used it to bring it
to a restore piont that was before there break up and whala. it's all good,
up and running.
 

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