Windows XP Home SP2 has no Start button or desktop icons

[Guest]

1) My computer is located in a room that we don’t always heat. The
temperature often drops below 40 degree F at night. Sometimes when booting
up, the computer does not boot on the first attempt--does not run the BIOS
successfully--or does not boot Windows XP successfully, requiring pressing
the Restart button on the computer case or turning off the power and trying
again. I know that computers should not be operated in temperatures
significantly above 70 degrees F. Is there a low temperature maximum for
computer operation as well?
2) I installed audioJPEG demo on my computer yesterday and briefly ran the
program, and a web browser was opened as part of the installation. When I
tried to close the web browser, I had to use Task Manager to get it to stop
running, and to close another window as well (I hope I am remembering
correctly what happened). Following this, Windows XP asked me if I wanted to
send an error report to MIcroSoft about Internet Explorer crashing, and I
declined. Following this I did not have any icons on my desktop neither was
there a Task Bar, so I could not access the Start button. Several successive
computer reboots also did not reveal the desktop icons or the Task Bar, even
though I put the XP CD-ROM in the CD drive and used boot with CD support
option.

I am running McAfee Virus Protection which was installed about three months
ago. I have a new Soyo motherboard with Intel Celeron 2.6 Ghz processor with
756 MB of RAM all of which was successfully installed six months ago.
Any ideas on how I can recover the Start Button?

 

[Leythos]

1) My computer is located in a room that we donâ¤=3Ft always heat.. The
temperature often drops below 40 degree F at night. Sometimes when booting
up, the computer does not boot on the first attempt--does not run the BIOS
successfully--or does not boot Windows XP successfully, requiring pressing
the Restart button on the computer case or turning off the power and trying
again. I know that computers should not be operated in temperatures
significantly above 70 degrees F. Is there a low temperature maximum for
computer operation as well?

When working in factories in Michigan, near the top/lake, when the room
is -5f, I've not had any problem with a computer that was running at the
time. When leaving a computer over-night, the drive may stick and the
LCD may not work.

Turn it on, get it running, leave it running.