No desktop or Start button

[lee]

I have a pc running windows XP pro, when it starts it
gets just past the logon screen and then seems to hang.
There is no start button or icons on the desktop, just
the wallpaper. The mouse and numlock/capslock work. After
a while it pops up with the message that explorer
encounterd some problems. If i go to the task manager and
try to run msconfig or explorer or any task, it tells me
that Task Manager encounterd some problems.

Anybody got any ideas coz i'm about ready to throw it out
the window.

 

[Sal]

Malware may be causing this. Be sure to run a current AV program, as well as
Spybot.