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Taskbar shows as busy

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9 replies

by don christner

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A coworkers home computer has a problem I would like to help him fix. After bootup, the desktop appears but anytime he moves the mouse to the taskbar area (including the START button), the mouse changes to an hourglass and will not let him select anything on the taskbar (including the START button).

He can double-click any desktop icon and it will launch (although very slow response). System is running Win98. Has anyone seen this, what is corrupted?

TIA,
Don

9 replies

by ann777

Explorer.exe is corrupted...

See if he can boot to Win98 normally with a boot disk (floppy boot setup to read cd-rom).

Then with the Win98 cd-rom in the drive, extract a new copy of the Explorer.exe file:

Click Start, click Run, type sfc.exe in the Open box, and then click OK.

Click Extract one file from installation disk.
In the Specify the system file you would like to restore box, type explorer.exe, and then click Start.

In the Restore From box, type the drive letter and path to the Windows 98 CD-ROM.

In the Save File In box, type the full path to the Windows folder (for example, C:\Windows), and then click OK.

When you see the "The file has been successfully extracted" message, click OK, and then click Close.
Restart the computer.

by ann777

If the above fails to help, I recommend that he do a full setup on top of the current setup and see if that will get the system operational again.

If both fail, fdisk the hdd and start over.

by qballrail

Actually, the registry is corrupt. Whenever there is a taskbar issue, whether it "disappears" or you are unable to access it (as in this case) there is a registry entry that is corrupt. If he has backed up his registry, running restore should resolve. The above entry regarding explorer.exe is only partially correct, but the resolution is sound. Otherwise, he will need to do what I call an overlay install. Not a full install, essentially like an upgrade. Once he's done that, have him run Windows update since many of his drivers will have been replaced by the original install.

by rcom

Use control-alt-del to see what's running and close programs starting with extra junk like internet email chats etc. Also select close for explorer and when it brings up the box asking to shut down, restart etc. cancel that then when the box comes up for closing explorer choose yes. Something is running in the backround. Plus how much hard drive space is available. Virus scanning should have already been done.

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