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Windows XP Professional wont boot to show desktop
I have a Windows XP Professional PC on a peer to peer network that won't boot to show the desktop. It boots up past the welcome screen but all I get is the desktop background with no icons or start menu. I can hit control alt delete and bring up the task manager. I can then go to the run prompt and get into Internet Explorer and other programs. I've tried in safe mode, same thing. I've tried a system restore, it won't restore. I have also taken the hard drive out and scanned with AVG and Malwarebytes. All clean. Any other ideas?
Windows XP
Last Comment
wolfievtec
When you are in Task Manager click New Task in the lower right hand corner and type in explorer.exe See if that brings the desktop back. Then scan the living daylights out of it for malware.
Have you updated the system recently? I've only seen this type of behaviour when a service pack installation goes bad.
If you manage to get explorer running as jimbecher said before, then you can use System File Checker:
start -> run ->
sfc /scannow
start -> run ->
sfc /scannow
Hi,
You can also run SFC /SCANNOW from the run prompt in task manager. If SFC fails to fix your problem try doing a repair install as described here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
Cheers,
Perry
You can also run SFC /SCANNOW from the run prompt in task manager. If SFC fails to fix your problem try doing a repair install as described here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
Cheers,
Perry
ASKER
When I try to run explorer.exe from the run box it says Windows can not find explorer.exe. If I do a repair from the XP CD like suggested above, will I lose any data or will it just repair the Windows files?
Try the explicit path. C:\Windows\explorer.exe A "repair" install should work and be non destructive too but I would try explorer.exe first to see if, at that point, you can run scans from within Windows.
A repair install only fixes issues with windows, all of you data will be there when its finished. Its a non-destructive way of fixing windows.
ASKER
I tried the direct path, I can see explorer.exe under c:\windows but when I select it, it still says it can't find it. Maybe a corrupt file? I guess I can try a "repair" install next.
In this particular case a repair install could actually do a little more then fix Windows problems. It might actually over-write Windows files that were infected with malware. I would try the explicit explorer.exe fix first and if that doesn't get you back to your desktop where you can pull full scans then I would try a repair install.
ASKER
I did try the explicit path. C:\Windows\explorer.exe. It still says it can't find it. Is this what you mean? thanks.
Yes. You did it properly. It sounds like what ever you got infected with really did some damage to Windows. Plan A didn't work so I would go to plan B. Repair install.
Are you able to boot into safemode ok? if you are you can install Avast from http://www.avast.com update it and do a boot time virus scan.
ASKER
Safe Mode does the same thing. I'm going to try a repair in a few minutes. Hopefully that will work.
Send us your AutoRuns (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx) log.
ASKER
I just went through the entire repair with the Windows XP CD. I had to re-activate windows and everything. Same thing happens! No icons or start menu. I will try to run the autoruns program and send the logs.
ASKER
The autorun file is a .arn. It won't let me send it this way. I tried to zip it and no luck. Any ideas now?
Rename it as a .txt or send it to ee-stuff.com
Also, get the AutoRuns log in safe mode.
Also, get the AutoRuns log in safe mode.
ASKER
Here are the 2 log files I renamed to .txt - I hope this is what you need. - Thanks.
AutoRunsnormal.txt
AutoRunsSafemode.txt
AutoRunsnormal.txt
AutoRunsSafemode.txt
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Now that you have done a repair install what happens if you try and run explorer.exe from within task manager?
ASKER
Removing "explorer.exe" under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Wi
Wow. Otal brain lapse. I had this exact problem a couple months ago and got it going again all through task manager. It just requires a lot of remembering where you put things. As you did first thing ... use internet explorer to go to www.superantispyware.com download and install the Pro evaluation. Use task manager for yet another new task and browse to c:\program files\.... and run the executable. You should be able to do the exact same thing for malwarebytes and combofix. It will clean it up.
It was something left from a virus.
ASKER
Using the Autoruns program worked. After sending the logs to oranqutang, he was able to see what I needed to remove. Thanks so much for everyone's help and suggestions.