Start menu and desktop icons disappeared?

Joined
7 Feb 2007
Messages
70
Reaction score
0
Location
Devon
Country
United Kingdom
Hi,

Just started up my pc and the start menu, task bar and all icons have disappeared, leaving just the desktop wallpaper.

The only way I can access anything is to ctrl,alt,del and use task manager, new task, then finding the relevant prog to use.

Any ideas??

Thanks, TT
 
Sponsored Links
If you cannot get to system restore in normal mode, reboot into safe made by tapping the F8 key rapidly as soon as the computer tries to boot up.
select safe mode and when running, do a system restore.
It will restore and automatically reboot into normal mode.
See if that works and get back.
dave
 
Sorry, but can't seem to get it to boot in safe mode!

Tapping the F8 key during start up gives me the option of which drive to boot from. I then select the hard drive and it boots normally, whether I tap F8 or not.

Sorry!! :oops:
 
Sponsored Links
And so......

I've managed to navigate around the c drive to find the sysytem restore and done that to a date when everything was ok with the same results (no icons etc).

Everything seems to be working, all programs work when I find them through the task manager, but as I said earlier there are no icons on my desktop, with no start menu or task bar, just my wallpaper.
 
Tried explorer.exe in the task manager and it said that Windows could not access it. sfc /scannow didn't seem to do anything!

Still can't get into safe mode.

A real luddite, Sorry!
 
Open the task manager processes and see if there is a sysu.exe
If so follow the instructions in Response No. 1 here:
http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/taskbar-and-icons-disappeared/85915.html
In the list in the link, items 2, 4, & 6.
To get to them, open Task manager and in File -> New task,
For 2. Type
C:\Program Files

For 4. Type
regedit

For 6. Type
msconfig

Set a System restore point before starting.



Incidentally, to get into Safemode in this situation:
Open Task Manager -> File -> New Task
Type msconfig -> OK
In the BOOT.INI Tab put a dot in Safe boot -> Apply -> OK
It will offer to restart, just click Restart.

dave
 
sysu.exe is adware software.
If you find the sysu.exe in the task list, once you have removed it by following the directiond in the link, and got your taskbar and icons back, download, install and check for updates Malwarebytes
Then download, install and check for updates SuperAntiSpyware

Once both have been installed, run a quick scan with Malwarebytes and let it shift everything it finds. Then run a full scan with Super AntiSpyware and let that also get rid of everything it finds.

dave
 
Seen this before, think it is to do with profiles, create a new proile and copy everything across to the new profile.
 
No sysu.exe I'm afraid!

Also, there doesn't seem to be an explorer.exe either. Should there be?
 
Whoa!! I don't know why it's happened, but I've got everything back!!! :D

I tried another system restore to a point further back, again with no joy. So I decided to undo that restore, and hey presto, everything appeared.

No idea why, but happy just the same!!

Any ideas on that one?
 
Timmy,
Pleased to hear that it is fixed.
in your post before it fixed itself, you said you did not have a 'explorer.exe' , was that when you looked in Task manager?
Now it is working have a look in Task Manager and see if explorer.exe is there now.
Because that is probably what was causing the loss on the taskbar and icons.
Should it happen again and the explorer.exe is missing, click on File in the Task Manager and New Task and then just type in 'explorer' into the box. That should start it again and the taskbar should return.
dave
 
Not sure where to go from here!!

The next time I booted up, the same problem occurred, but this time the system restore trick did not work. I was advised to try a windows repair with the XP cd, but I now seem to have 2 copies of Windows installed on my computer.

When I booted from the cd it didn't give me an option of a repair, it just went straight into a full install.

Now when I boot up it asks me which version I want to load, one of which is the new version with no programs installed, or the previous version which still has the problem of no start menu, icons etc.

Where do I go from here?
 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top