no dektop icons and start menu

did you check this :

right clik on your desktop, select arrange icons and check the show icons?

It looks like an explorer problem to me.
Have you recently installed sth? If so, can you try to uninstall it?
Could you install / reinstall a Service Pack?

you can try a system restore to a previous date also

tried to do a system restore but only to confront with an error unable to perform system restore to the date mentioned,and wht is sth,the laptop had service pack1 any other suggestions apart from the one mentioned above,not convinced with the answers i got.

Reinstalling SP1 doesn't cost anything and solves tons of problems, this one included in some cases.

did you try my first post?

to try your first post i need to right click on the desktop which i cant the only thing i can do is ctrl-alt-del and then open explorer.exe only then i get everything,anyways i have upgraded to windows xp profession its working fine now if there are any other suggestions let me know i will use it for future problems thank you

here is one : run sfc /scannow from the run box to check the system file integrity

- have you changed anything with security permissions?
- did you install anything
- could you indicate the last actions you did before this happened?

tried sfc scannow option as well but didnt work tried chkdsk also,its one of my clients laptop so i dont know whether or not he installed any programs before this problem occurred, will copying explorer.exe from other xp machine solve the problem???

You can try that, if it is the same xp version, it should do no harm.

ok any other suggestions left for this problem coz i dont wanna reinstall this os again if i come across the same problem

Hi Kaspboodai,

I've asked you 3 questions, the main question is if something has triggered this behaviour.  I've seen this before however it depends on your answers.

Cheers

Do you have an antivirus?
IF you see your wallpaper, Explorer is "loading" someway.
Obviously, something is stopping it from loading (and you can load it manually).

Does anyone remembers where the default shell is loaded from? On 98, was on system.ini or win.ini, but not used now...

Check, anyway, if you have a "shell=..." in your system.ini or win.ini (run sysedit).

Luck,

run a repair using the os cds

it sounds like the explorer.exe file is missing from c:\windows
One way to fix this is to run checkdisk on the computer. Use "chkdsk /r" to force a more complete scan.

SFC /r scans the system32 directory. I do not believe that that will fix this issue.

Basically either a) the MFT doesn't know where to find explorer.exe, or b) explorer.exe is missing/corrupted/unaccessable
If it's an issue with the MFT, chkdsk will fix it if possible.

It's possible to copy explorer.exe form a functioning computer to the no functioning one. Just open \\notebookname\c$ and copy to \windows. You may have to chkdsk after that, though.

Finally, an inplace upgrade (repair install) will fix the issue, at the expense of having to repatch the OS. But the programs will still be there.

CorporatePing,
He can run explorer... but only from task manager/run. Is not loading as the default shell.
A chkdsk may help, specially if he has a corrupted key on it. But maybe, the problem is different...

>>ok any other suggestions left for this problem<<
Every time I see that prob the only fix is a format install. Repair installs don't fix it There it is.

Pls can u try the following
Open the Control Panel (Click Start then Control Panel. Now make sure you are viewing in Classic mode). Double-click the Display icon.
On the Desktop tab, click on Customise Desktop
Under the Desktop Cleanup option, remove the tick from the box which says 'Run desktop cleanup wizard every 60 days'
Finally, click OK

Also pls can u check the below link
<http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-1330790523.shtml>

Pls let me knwo if the above info is of any help

Actually, the following virus, will do the exact thing that you have described in the above post. It affects Win200 and WinXP.

Really easy to get rid of..

The Virus is MSSYS.EXE. It will install itself in the Windows folder. When you load Windows, the desktop will not load unless you run a new task, explorer.exe. To see if you are infected, just check in the processes list for MSSYS.EXE. If you have this, just end task it, open regedit, delete the keys with MSSYS.EXE under HKEY [Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run] and RunOnce and also [HKEY Local Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run] and RunOnce. Then delete the exe file.

Right.

First of all I suggest checking for virii as well as spyware.
If that does not solve it restore explorer.exe
It'll prolly be in the windows\system32\dllcache dir
expand c:\windows\system32\dllcache\explorer.ex_ c:\explorer.exe
Now boot with a bootdisk (www.bootdisk.com get a win98 one)
Make a copy of the original explorer.exe
copy c:\windows\explorer.exe c:\temp\
then replace the ol done with the one you just expanded
copy c:\explorer.exe c:\windows\
Overwrite the one there (you have a backup in c:\temp anyways... you just put it there)

See if that solves it.

If not put the original one back.

Some things are very simple to fix

Right click the desktop then click Arrange Icons By/ Show Desktop Icons.

That fixes the desktop.

Now go to the Control Panel click taskbar and start menu

make sure lock taskbar is unchecked, and make sure keep taskbar ontop of all windows is checked. click apply then click ok

egl1044 that is exactly what i said in my first post !

nobus :

I scrolled right past that I'm sorry. Don't use my answere

anyways folks i really appreciate all the solutions that was offered to me and as i mentioned early that the problem has been solved by reinstalling windows xp though i was not quite satisfied doing that.
since nobus has been constantly replying to my questions i will offer points to him
take care adios.