on my desktop computer, no start menu or desktop icons show up, only the desktop background!! HELP PLEASE!!?

Question

last night, my computer was working perfectly fine and normal, and nothing seemed to be wrong with it. so i shut it down for the night because it had been on for sevral days and it needed a reboot. so this morning, i tried turning it on, and it brought me to the normal log in screen. i entered my password, but then the start menu and desktop items didn't show! I thought it was just a matter of time getting them to load, but that was obviously not that case. I tried accsessing task manager, but nothing worked. I really hope i dont need to reformat beause i don't have my iTunes library backed up (many many songs). So please, any help wanted!! Thank you!!

Answer 1

Have you tried rebooting again? Sometimes just rebooting again can fix many issues. If you have, then have you tried going into Safe Mode and performing a Restore?

If you have already tried rebooting and it didn't fix your issue, then try doing a Restore in Safe Mode.

First, what has changed recently? What you have currently is what is referred to as a BSOD or Blue Screen of Death, or a serious computer crash. Don't panic, often these are easily fixed. Do not jump into a reformat and reinstall right yet. That would be rash at this point.

Figure out what has changed or been added recently. It won't do any good to do a Restore point if you recently added some type of hardware and it is giving you fits. The first thing you do when faced with a Blue Screen, is sit back, relax, and go over what is different. What has been added or changed.

If it is only a software change, then the Restore Point will fix that easily enough, but, if you don't know what software change occurred, you go ahead with the Restore, then the change occurred again, you are right back where you started, and have lost an important Restore Point. Every Restore Point between the one you select and today will be lost.

If it is a peice of hardware you recently added, you will need to remove it or you will Blue Screen right after you reboot following the Restore Point.

Drivers are the most common cause of Blue Sceens. Did you recently get an updated driver for your system, such as from Windows Update? If you added hardware it is possible that the driver that was supplied with it is the culpret. Also, it is important that any hardware or software is compatible with your system. I don't know what OS you are using, XP or Vista or what other OS you could have, such as Apple or Linix etc.

If you recently received an update to any piece of hardware, such as a printer or webcam, the new driver supplied with the update could Blue Screen your system. Too bad the error message is not displayed on your screen, but most often it shows very briefly and then is gone. The only way to get it to hang around is a utility that keep that portion onscreen for awhile but I am not going to have you do that.

Do you know anyone with computer experiance who can assist you via Remote Assistance? This person could fix your issue remotely from their own system. They can also do it via the Instant Messenger you have installed, if it is Yahoo! or Windows Live Messenger, but Remote Assistance is best.

Anyway, just a thought and an option.

Recently, my Logitech webcam was given a full upgrade via Windows Update. Not only did it wreck my webcam installation, but it wiped out my print driver making my printer unusable! I had to do a Restore Point and then immediantly go into Microsoft Update and make sure that update was not automatically reaplied to my system. I now use the option of being informed of available updates and then research them and download and install only the ones that I think I need the most and always set my own Restore Point prior to installing them. Microsoft Update supposidly creates an Restore point prior to installing updates, but I don't want to take any chances and so now set my own manually. It is very simple to do.

Ok, have you come up with anything that could be different? Anything at all, regardless of how minor it may appear. Even seemingly minor items can cause Blue Screens. I can't stress strongly enough how important it is to try to remember what recently has changed.

When you enter Safe Mode it is best to first use it to try to fix the issue before using System Restore.

First, reboot your system and as it reboots, right when it shows your computer manufacturers logo begin tapping the F8 key slowly. If you get to the Welcome Screen you missed the Entry to Safe Mode, just start over again.

You will see a black screen with white wording. It is a list of options. Select Safe Mode and press Enter. On the next screen select your OS, (it is probably the default selection) and press Enter. Don't be alarmed as you will see a scrolling screen of letters, numbers, and words, this is the basic drivers, utilities and files needs to start your Windows in Safe Mode. You will soon arrive at a Welcome screen that looks very simular to your regular one, but is in fact a bit different with a distinctive odd look. That is because you are at a very minimal resolution used in Safe Mode and the basic Video used there too. Click either on the System Adminstrator account or your own Adminstrator account if you use one. It usually doesn't matter which one you select. A few times it could matter, but usually not.

Enter the password, if you selected the System Admin account and never set a password, just clicking on the name Administrator will log you on to that accounts desktop.

Now, the screen will be black with white words "safe mode" in each corner", and a dialog box will greet you which offers you the choice of entering Safe Mode or doing a Restoration of your system. Select Enter Safe mode or click whichever button gets you in. You can access System Restore at any time in Safe Mode.

The first thing you should do is open your Device Manager and check if any yellow exclamation marks are on any entry. If so, double click to open its properties and read what it says on the General tab. If it says that a driver is bad, or if you know that a change was recently made to the driver file, click the driver tab and then click Rollback Driver. This will roll the driver back to a previous driver, or to a point in time when the drive and device was working fine.

If this event occurrs you can then reboot and see if you reboot normally. If not, go back into Safe Mode. This time however, select Safe Mode with Networking, so you have an active Internet connection. You will need it to view errors in Event Viewer.

Once in Safe Mode open your Event Viewer and begin looking for errors. If you find an error, double click that entry to open properties. In the middle area a link will take you to more detailed information of the error and often provide options and instructions on how to fix it.

Follow any links to information, and scroll down to see if there are any links to the Windows Knowledge Base articles about the error. If so, follow any instructions. If it concerns working in the Registry and you have never done this, back out, and take your system to a reputable repair shop for assistance. A repair shop can fix your system for you without having to reformat and reinstall your OS. Take it to a smaller store or shop as these folks give more care to customers than the much larger "big box" stores.

If you feel confident working in the registry, follow any instructions for repairing the issue.

Now, you can do a Restoration Point before taking your system to a repair shop if you are sure nothing has changed and you have not added any hardware to your sysem. However, please be aware that it is possible you have an infected system. I reccomend you do a complete system scan to ensure you are not infected. If you are and your security solution can't handle it, go to a HijackThis forum for further assitance. These peopel are all volunteers and will walk you through cleaning up your system. Do NOT do a Restore Point if you are infected because viruses and other malware hide in the System Restore Points because they are images or snapshots of your system at given points in time, which means the virus or other malware was most likely in several of those snapshots of the system. The people at a HijackThis forum will explain when to turn off System Restore and when to re-enable it to ensure all traces of the infection are gone. If that is what this issue is.

Just take a deep breath and know that you won't lose your files if you take these steps. There is no reason to reformat your hard disk and reinstall your OS. That is very drastic and usually never required. It is usally lazy technicians who don't want to do their jobs or tracking down the real issue who do this sort of silly but drastic action. I just want you aware it is NOT a requirement of fixing whatever issue you currently have.

Good luck and have a nice afternoon.

Answer 2

I was going to suggest going in to task manager, selecting file and new task. and typing explorer.exe, but if you can't get in to it there is probably something more wrong. Normally when you buy a pc there is a repair disc that you get that you could put in, following the instructions to repair windows. Edit: Will task manager work in non-safe mode if you try again? Besides that my knowledge of the subject doesn't really go much deeper and the repair disc is probably your best option.

Answer 3

Hold the power button in for about 5 seconds until the power turns off and then turn it back on. Hopefully it will load up better this time.

Answer 4

You will be able to access your task manager by pressing ctrl+alt+delete.

Now when it opens up, in application tab go to "New Task" and type in following "explore.exe" .

this will run your icons and taskbar thing...

if it does not come then u need to check ""Is the explore.exe still running??""

To do so go to "Processes" and check for that task there. It should be there, this is TEMPORARY solution but u need to see a pro.....


hopefully it will work !! ;)

Answer 5

You dont need to reformat it, Just restart your computer again.

Answer 6

This link covers all possible answers from simple to complex

http://ask-leo.com/my_taskbar_is_missing_and_i_have_no_start_button_what_do_i_do.html