Unable to run programs, No Start Button, No Task Manager

[Guest]

My dad decided to bring his friend's machine to take a look at. It's running
Windows XP Professional and this thing has too many problems and I have no
idea where to begin or a clue on how to fix it.

For starters, there is no Start Button on the taskbar but if I hit the
windows key it'll show the start menu minus icons and at the very top of the
screen.

Attempting to load the Task Manager does nothing. I can click on the task
manager button and it'll just go back to the desktop without anything
happening.

I attempted to start up their antivirus security only that won't work
either. I immediately get a "This application has failed to start because the
application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix
this problem." error message. This occurs for every program I try to launch
including any new programs I try to install.

I'm unable to load anything like Services or Event Viewer since I just get
another error message reading "MMC failed to initialize because it was
installed incorrectly or because a portion of the registry has become
corrupted. Make sure the file Mmcndmgr.dll is registered by running "regsvr32
%SystemRoot%\system32\mmcndmgr.dll".

I tried to boot into safe mode but that will hang at MUP.sys and never boot.

Any suggestions on what I should do? I need all the help I can get. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Unless there's a pressing reason to save this copy of Windows, for example
software that cannot easily be replaced, I'd go for a format and reinstall.
Otherwise you could spend hours on getting it going, only to find it has
other problems too. Plus, with a fresh install you should have a lean, mean
machine once you've finished instead of one with the legacy of years of use
to slow it down.

If you need to salvage data first, this is best done with a USB disk (or
temporary IDE disk) and a Live-CD OS such as BartPE or Knoppix/Ubuntu.

Before I went any further though, I'd give the hardware a good workout with
a DOS diags disk or Knoppix etc. It might just be your HD is failing, or
perhaps your processor overheating.

Other thing is, before wiping see if you can persuade Device Manager to run,
and make a note of the the display , IDE driver, LAN, modem, etc. That will
save some hassle with identifying the right drivers if Windows doesn't
autodetect them.