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On boot-up, no taskbar, icons, or start menu. Help!!!

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8 replies

by radrzr 1 view

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Nothing works. Task manager doesn't start, Windows CD won't boot. When I do ctrl-alt-del, the menu pops up, but when I click on task manager, nothing happens. When I F8 and try to boot into Windows with command prompt, that doesn't work either. Safe mode comes up the same as regular, only wallpaper with no icons, menus, etc.

HELP!!!!

8 replies

by oh smeg

I can not see what you have so you have to tell us so we can help you here.

Have you any working up to date AV product loaded on this system?

Have you scanned for infections?

Have you changed anything prior to this happening?

Was there anything strange occurring before this started?

Generally speaking every time I have seen this it was a Infection of some sought where the user either failed to have a working AV product in place or didn't regularly scan to prevent infections taking control. And in one case where the user couldn't help themselves if they saw something on the screen they just had to click on it no matter what it was so they OK disabling the AV Product and installed the Virus without any understanding of what it was that they where doing.

The only easy fast solution I have found for this is to remove the HDD fit it to an External USB Caddy and backup the Data off it. Hopefully if you where using EFS you have backed up the Recovery Agent because if you haven't your Data will be lost forever as you [b]Can Not[/b] remove the encryption under anything but the working OS with the Recovery Agent Reloaded.

After you have backed up your Data use a Utility like Boot & Nuke to wipe the HDD

http://www.dban.org/

Then when that is finished load the system from either the Recovery Set or the Install Disc's that where provided with the computer new. Once you have it reloaded you can move your data back and continue working.

There are however some steps that you may be required to take depending on which version of Windows you have installed. Things like for XP 32 Bit you need to install any Realtech Sound Drivers before connecting tot he Windows Update Servers.

Col

by radrzr

Sorry. Here's the details. I use a McAfee AV Suite provided by BellSouth. It didn't find anything, but Ad-Aware did. It had found 2 virus files that popped up during the freeze. One was something like mwbid, it told me it was a trojan downloader. Initially, I was able to pull up task manager, and using new task, was able to pull up programs. I ran Ad-Aware and was able to delete these bad files. I went on trendmicro.com, did an online scan and deleted everything that it found as well. The problem is, that after I ran the Ad-Aware and deleted the bad files, my desktop is still the same. The new thing is, now I press ctrl-alt-del and the menu pos up, but the task manager won't start. So now I'm really stuck. I even put it to boot from the Windows XP disk and it does, but goes back to the same desktop with no icons.

by oh smeg

When things like this happen I pull the HDD Backup all of the Data as Plain Data not through a Backup Application and certainly never encrypted, then Wipe & Reload the system.

It's faster and far cheaper for my clients. Trend should be OK it's at least one of the better AV Products though personally I don't like it all that much but it doesn't pickup any Malware and the best for that is Malware Bytes available here

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=11004434

it's one of the best available and will kill XP 2009 AV Hostage Ware not any others will get rid of that.

Col

by jesuschristsuperstar

I've had this problem on my XP home pc numerous times, and my wife has had the problem several times on her pc running XP pro. Completely different hardware on the two machines. Yet the cause and solution for us have always been the same.

Press Alt-Control-Delete and bring up the Task Manager. Sometimes it will take a minute or two for your Task Manager to start - be patient. On the [Processes] tab, see if your winlogon.exe has started. (This was the cause on our machines, winlogon had not started.)

If that is your problem, click File > New Task (Run), and type in [winlogon.exe] in the popup box and press Enter or click OK.

PS: sometimes just the act of pressing Alt-Control-Delete will be enough to jog the system a bit and your winlogon will start by itself.

by adminmichael

At home i have users logon and then they have folder redirections if you are not connected to the network you may loose those icons as i have noticed that if i bring my laptop to another location i dont have desktop icons or taskbar icons. This might be your issue if you or your network adminsitrator might have setup.

by adminmichael

ok sorry i only saw the first have of your message... if your start menu isnt showing up try ctrl + alt + delete and go to task mgr and start task explorer.exe or try windows key + r and type in explorer.exe

by elibarikikilewo

like adminmichael said depending on your operating system you should navigate task manager from file + new task + browse + go to windows folder then double click on explore.exe then click Ok close your task manager and that is it.. or just run C:\Windows\explorer.exe .. however this is a virus issue so you will need to scan your system

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