XP Pro desktop displays wallpaper only

[ashkaan57]

Hi,
when I boot up my laptop, it displayes the Windows XP startup screen,
presents the logon dialog box and then it only displays the wallpaper
(usual green hills, sky and cloud). The task bar and desktop icons
don't show up.
I tried starting in safe mode, same thing minus the wallpaper.
I booted in command prompt and did a ckdsk /f, rebooted, no change.
I brought up the task manager and one by one deleted all tasks, no
change.

Is there any hting else I can try short of a compalete re-install of
XP?

TIA.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Mart=EDn?=]

Can you open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) from Task Manager? Is so, take a look at this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. On the right there should be a string value: 'Shell'. Its content must be 'Explorer.exe' (without quotes). If that value does not exist or it is wrong, modify it and restart the computer. Hope this helps.

 

[ashkaan57]

Thanks Daniel.
I used the Task Manager to open regedt32 and checked the entry. It is
there and is set to 'Explorer.exe'.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Daniel_Mart=EDn?=]

Try restoring the system back to a previous date when all worked well. You can do this even if XP is unable to load the shell:

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449