computer question

[greg]

for some reason, since a few days ago when my little brother turned on the computer the desktop won't load and i have to run every program through the ctrl+al+delete Windows Task Manager, there's no icons or toolbar that loads and when you right-click on the background (desktop picture, the only thing that does load) nothing happens. so....... has anyone experienced that before?

[head-case]

Sounds bad.  What happens if you run explorer.exe ?

[greg]

i use firefox (used to use internet explorer), but when i open it (it's actually iexplore.exe), nothing happens 

[Bogey]

Are you sure that they are not loading, or are the icons just missing?

[BachQ]

1-800-GEEKSQUAD

[Bogey]

Does this article help Greg?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q260703/

[Mark]

Try this:

Right-click anywhere on your desktop, go to Arrange Icons By, then make sure you've got Show Desktop Icons ticked.

[Bogey]

Try this:

Right-click anywhere on your desktop, go to Arrange Icons By, then make sure you've got Show Desktop Icons ticked.

That's what I was hoping for as well in my above post Mark. 

[greg]

nothing loads at all except my background desktop picture, right clicking doesn't do anything 
plus, when i log on, it takes about 10 seconds more

[Mark]

You might also find you've got your taskbar on auto-hide ... try running your cursor all the way to the bottom of your screen and see if it pops up.

[Bogey]

You might also find you've got your taskbar on auto-hide ... try running your cursor all the way to the bottom of your screen and see if it pops up.

One would think something like this Mark or the background picture would probably not pull up.

[mahlertitan]

it sounds interesting, can you upload a picture or two? i would like to see what your desktop looks like.

and if all fails, you know what to do

[greg]

You might also find you've got your taskbar on auto-hide ... try running your cursor all the way to the bottom of your screen and see if it pops up.

nope, nothing happens

it sounds interesting, can you upload a picture or two? i would like to see what your desktop looks like.

this is my background picture, the only thing i see when i start up the computer and log on
but..... now that i think of it, i haven't tried logging on my mom's name..... i'll do that tomorrow

[head-case]

i use firefox (used to use internet explorer), but when i open it (it's actually iexplore.exe), nothing happens 

I not referring to Internet Explorer.  "explorer.exe" is the program that displays your desktop, file browsing menus, etc, which is apparently not running.  If you get your desktop back by running explorer, that would mean that explorer itself is fine but it is not being started when you login.  If it won't run that would mean that explorer itself is hosed. 

[маразм1]

Oh, its the new virus.  My parents got it too, they had to reinstall windows.  sorry

[Holden]

Open the PC the way you have to now then go to:

START/ALL PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SYSTEM RESTORE/ click "restore my computer to a previous time", select a restore point date prior to your brother getting his hands on the PC and click next then follow the prompts until you have to reboot. Reboot and see what happens.

If this doesn't work then post here and I'll tell you the next step to take

Good luck

[mahlertitan]

Open the PC the way you have to now then go to:

START/ALL PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SYSTEM RESTORE/ click "restore my computer to a previous time", select a restore point date prior to your brother getting his hands on the PC and click next then follow the prompts until you have to reboot. Reboot and see what happens.

If this doesn't work then post here and I'll tell you the next step to take

Good luck

i don't think he is willing to go that far.

[DavidW]

Well first of all using system restore won't hurt anything because you can roll back up to your current point if you don't like it.

Second of all I had the same problem just last week.  It was a monitor resolution problem and not a software problem, at least for me.  It can happen if you have an lcd monitor and it's not hitting the native resolution setting like it's supposed to.  That can be fixed by booting in safe mode and then changing the resolution.  If that's the problem of course.

[greg]

Open the PC the way you have to now then go to:

START/ALL PROGRAMS/ACCESSORIES/SYSTEM TOOLS/SYSTEM RESTORE/ click "restore my computer to a previous time", select a restore point date prior to your brother getting his hands on the PC and click next then follow the prompts until you have to reboot. Reboot and see what happens.

If this doesn't work then post here and I'll tell you the next step to take

Good luck

thanks, i might just do that, when i log onto to my mom's screenname sometime today or tomorrow.

Well first of all using system restore won't hurt anything because you can roll back up to your current point if you don't like it.

Second of all I had the same problem just last week.  It was a monitor resolution problem and not a software problem, at least for me.  It can happen if you have an lcd monitor and it's not hitting the native resolution setting like it's supposed to.  That can be fixed by booting in safe mode and then changing the resolution.  If that's the problem of course.

lcds are flat screen, right? no, unfortuanetely i don't have a flat-screen monitor

[greg]

yesterday everything started working again.... how it started, it's hard to explain.....

i logged onto my mom's name and it was the same, no desktop. But, using the task manager i went to the "Recent" folders section and double clicked on a random folder. It was one of the folders for the mystery scores- it was .ink extension, i have no idea what that it is. But every time i'd open it, the task bar at the bottom would flash for half a second and disappear. I kept expermenting with this until eventually the desktop loaded up again by itself, along with some error message that i couldn't understand at all. Everything started working again. The internet wasn't (i had trouble going online, too, even though i was getting a signal) but when i logged off of my mom's name and went on my name, the internet is working just fine, like nothing ever happened. So it was all just completely random, or so complex that i could never understand what was really going on.