Desktop malfunction
Here is what i am dealing with:
All of my icons are gone from all user accounts. Including the taskbar. CTR+ESC, windows key, do not work. I cannot right click on the desktop, nothing happens. The Desktop image thatt the different user accounts had selected are all there. They did not change. On the bright side–all of my files are are still here. I can access everything i need via task manager(thank god for control alt del.) None of them are corrupt, and they all work fine. The thing that I notice being most predominant here, is that explorer.exe is not running at startup. You would think we could just have task manager run that application, but no luck. The taskbar flashes for half a second, and vanishes. The explorer file is in its correct place.
What ive tried:
Ive tried, along with my the two of my best computer enlightened friends, everything we can think of. That in cludes registry fixes, AUTOEXEC's, manually running explorer.exe and explorer. They also came up with a .vbs file, im not very familiar with that, but i gave it a shot anyways, no luck. Ive done virus/adware/spyware checks, and i have found only one thing. This alexa registry file which adaware hit. Now if its already corrupted something, deleting it wouldnt have done much, but i HAVE already delted taht file. What i dont kno, is how to fix it. And as i am typing this, i just have realized that i probably should have checked that thign out to see what it modified.
Anways, ive tried everything i can possibly think of, and do not want to have to reinstall windows. Our family has too many important things on here to take that kind of time writing everythign to a mem stick or a CD. Right now i am totally clueless as of what to do. And woudl greatly appreciate any help that anyone would have for me.
Sys specs:
Dell 2400 2.20ghz intel pen 4 1 gig RAM dell R vid card win xp pro
Also:
I heard about reaplying the service pack…we are on SP1 on this computer. I thoguht about reinstalling windows, and the SP1, but i cant lose any files on this computer. THere is also a shared network between this one and a laptop we have up on the main floor of the house. will reinstalling the SP or OS effect any of my files, or files over taht shared connection to the laptop? I am tyring to fix this in the most simple way possible, without having to reinstall OS's and so on.
I'd realy love if someone could figure this out, because i REALLY dont want to have to back everything up and reinstall the dman OS. thanks.
It sounds to me like you've done most of the sensible things. They maybe a few things you have missed out, but the easiest fix I could recommend for you is:
- Backup (Only data files)
- Format your Hard drive
- Reinstall Windows
- Apply your backup
- Slowly reinstall your programs wether downloaded or from a CD (you shouldn't have backed these up!)
Good Luck!;)
well heres my problem. Its a fairly slow computer (in gaming terms, shitty gfx card) and i was trying to get a little better fps and smooth gameplay outta the game i was playing. So instead of hte system constanyl cahching settings and so forth, if that sounds right to you, i had that turned off. Now, im not really quite sure about how i can do a sys restore. The bad part ehre, is taht i would have to restore waaaaaaaay back. a couple of months. Now theres no BIG prob wiht taht, but id have to save a shitload of files to make sure i didint lose them, but ill tr it.
one problem. I cant remember how to get to it, or how to do a sys restore. i have to do everything via task manager (start new task) so could someone please help me wiht taht?