Hi all!

My computer has recently been gradually developing a problem at startup, and I wondered if anyone would be able to offer any help? When I (or any other users) log on, my wallpaper appears, but no taskbar, Start menu, icons etc. To get these to appear, I have to use the Task Manager to manually end and restart explorer.exe. Even then, some startup programs (e.g., Windows Live Messenger and programs in the Startup folder) do not load. In the past it has been possible to open Windows Media Player to get these to load, but this no longer works. I find this whole problem very odd. Does anyone have any ideas as to what is going on?

Thank you in advance

try a windows repair

Yuck!

If you have a system restore setup [2k onwards you probably do] it might be worth a try. If you press f8 before Windows gets to the graphical loading bar, you should be able to get to the system restore menu. Otherwise it's probably a registry issue, and you may need to repair it. You could probably replace the kernel somehow and see how that goes, too.

Thanks for your suggestions. However, I do have one or two problems: I don't have a full version of Windows on CD, just a restore disk, and System Restore won't work. I have already tried this with no success.I actually think that this problem is more concerned with malware. I have run several anti-spyware scans which have found but failed to remove infected files.

Heh, do you remember what those files were? You might be able to replace them by hand, assuming you know someone who has a working OS the same version as yours.

I don't think that specific system files were mentioned, just names of malware. Some of these I remember: Smitfraud-C.Toolbar888, WinAntiVirusPro 2006, Virtumonde

quote:

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Originally posted by rob_botch
I don't think that specific system files were mentioned, just names of malware. Some of these I remember: Smitfraud-C.Toolbar888, WinAntiVirusPro 2006, Virtumonde

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What OS are you running? (and please, state every version number of Service pack where possible)

Windows XP Media Center Edition, English US, SP2, all auto updates are installed.

Okay, i can't see anything wrong there...
Oh, and btw, what are your system specs?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
1GB DDR RAM
BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC
200 Gb HDD

Just over a year old

Is there anything else you would like to know?

Thanks for your help

Robert

Have a look here -
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-39693.html

I'm not sure the solution that duck! provided will work, since that is to do with explorer.exe never being loaded in the first place.

I would suspect that it is malware, and you should look for a scanner that can remove them (or give you the file location).

Thanks for the link duck!. However, the registry entries mentioned in that forum are all present and correct in my registry. I don't think that this is the problem. Strangely, AVG AntiSpyware no longer reports any malware, yet the problem persists.

if you can't do a windows repair then find an good version of bart pe i have some tech 182 release it has anti-virus and anti-spyware and makes it really easy to fix up but seriously i think u need to do a windows repair, i have to all the time because i abuse mm computer if u do a repair it just replaces system files so nothing gets deleted

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
http://www.bootcd.us/BartPE_Plugins_Repository.php