Why Is My Desktop Blank?

[Zen]

Hi

I urgently need help from someone...

I'm using a laptop running on Windows XP Home Edition.

Suddenly when I start my laptop, my Desktop is empty. I only see my wall paper, but nothing else. No Start menu, no taskbar, no icons, nothing at all!!

What happened??

Please help!!

Thank you so much!!

[eek]

Try:

Right click on desktop>Arrange icons by>Show Desktop Items.

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Edit: Oh..no start menu either..ok..um...i have no idea... sorry

[Zen]

I tried right click....nothing appeared

[lopburi3]

Do you by any chance have the video set for dual display and moved the desktop to the other monitor?

[Zen]

nope...

i tried alt+ctrl+delete and sometimes there's a message that says "explorer.exe" is not responding...

[Tywais]

i tried alt+ctrl+delete and sometimes there's a message that says "explorer.exe" is not responding...

I suspect a service or driver is not loading then. When you restart the computer, hit the F8 key several times just after the BIOS screen tests complete to give you boot options. Select "Safe Mode" and see if it will come up normally.

[InSiSongkram]

Try a system restore if all else fails back to a point where your pc was behaving normally.

[lopburi3]

I would pull the battery to force a reboot at this point.

[Zen]

thanks guys, but i tried a system restore already, also rebooted many times but nothing happened....

[webfact]

Had the same problem couple of days ago.

Most likely the explorer.exe became corrupt.

A system restore saved my ar5e.

But you can test it is a corrupted explorer.exe or not

use ctrl-alt-del and open task manager

--> applications

--> new task

type in the box explorer.exe and click ok

if this procedure will load taskbar & desktop then do a system restore.

[lopburi3]

How can you do a system restore with a blank screen? What do you mean nothing happened? Does it boot normally but just show the blank (wallpaper) screen each time?

[webfact]

you also can check if your system files are in order

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/222471

BTW I do not use microsoft system restore anymore. I am using Ayrecovery which "mirrors" my C: drives every hour.

Its a different technology not the same as m$ system restore. Much much better

[Zen]

Thanks a lot. Now the only way I can access my desktop and all my files is:

1) boot up, and see blank desktop with only wall paper

2) press alt+ctrl+delete then click "Shut Down" then "Log off Username"

3) then a Log On screen will appear, and I click my Username to Log on.

I wonder if there's anyway to fix this??

[MKAsok]

I wonder if there's anyway to fix this??

It's not a corrupt explorer.exe so your best bet is to run msconfig: Deselect all items loading on start-up (except one obviously). Restart your computer. Continue this process until you find the start-up item that is interfering with explorer.exe loading. If it's not this, it's probably a virus. I assume you've already run a scan. If you can't find anything, download Hijack This, generate a log and post it to a nerd forum that specializes in decoding such logs.

[webfact]

Thanks a lot. Now the only way I can access my desktop and all my files is:

1) boot up, and see blank desktop with only wall paper

2) press alt+ctrl+delete then click "Shut Down" then "Log off Username"

3) then a Log On screen will appear, and I click my Username to Log on.

I wonder if there's anyway to fix this??

Did you recently download or install something?

What AV do you use?

Did you ever run an AV scan?

Did you try in safe mode "Last known good configuration"

A system restore to an earlier date should have brought your PC back to normal.

I start to suspect your PC might have an infection...

[Zen]

yes i used norton anti virus to scan and found some "virus". i thought norton did its job, but in the end my desktop became empty.

i suspect the virus is still there.

is it to late to get rid of it?

[webfact]

yes i used norton anti virus to scan and found some "virus". i thought norton did its job, but in the end my desktop became empty.

i suspect the virus is still there.

is it to late to get rid of it?

Good question and hard to answer remotly.

But try this free program "Cure it". Download it to your Desktop and

boot your PC into safe mode (F8) and run it.

Dr. Web Cure it

Report back

[jackdanielsesq]

Do ya run Windows as root or administrator?

BR>Jack