Desktop And Start Bar Won't Show!

[PastranA]

Heya all,
I am in extreme need of help.

I got home, turned on my computer and hit my name to log in at the start of XP. It made the sign in noises and everything but stayed at the sign in screen. I restarted like 5 times but the same thing happened. so I hit ctrl + alt + delete. It showed my wallpaper but no icons or the start bar. So then I managed to run a new task through the popup that comes through using ctrl + alt + delete. So i found the internet explorer icon and ran it. I was able to use the internet and it seems that I can use anything as long as i run it through the manual run thing that comes up when ya use ctrl + alt + delete. I have no idea how to get my start bar and desktop back. It seems to not want to load it. Does anybody no where the icon that puts you straight back to desktop is located? I want to try that and see if it will bring it up. Also I would like to try a system restore. Does any body know how I can do that because I have no idea. Also if anyone knows of any other reasons or knows why this is happening please tell me!

I dont wanna have to go reinstalling windows over something as stupid as this.

Please help me!

PastranA

[Gettinbye]

In the taskmanager(the Ctrl+Alt+Del popup window), have you tried "File>New Task>Run" and type in "explorer.exe"(no quotes)? That should restart your windows explorer service...

[PastranA]

Ta mate, Nortons is running now so I will try that after it finishes

[PastranA]

Nah that didnt work

Any other ideas?

[PastranA]

I found my way into control panel. I can click on everything in there except for the one that says 'taskbar and start menu'

WTF is going on

I want to try system restore. Can someone please tell me how to use system restore?

[Gettinbye]

the system restore exe is located at:
%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe
where typically "%SystemRoot%"=C:\windows
Can you browse your C: drive to get there?

[PastranA]

WOOHOO! Thanks heaps Gettinbye!

That fixed it

Thanks

[Gettinbye]

*EDIT* missed your post....glad to hear it.

[chaq_la]

i hav the same problem wit my taskbar and icons not appearing when windows xp starts up and none of your suggestions seem to work, anymore suggestions to solve this problem??? anyone????? please!!!!