Desktop icons and taskbar and start menu are not showing up

Hi, I have a Win XP IBM pc and when I turn it on its absolutely perfect apart from that there's no desktop icons or start menu and taskbar. what can I do?
BTW: Its WinXP Pro 32bit SP1

 

press ctrl + alt + del and bring up task manager

in task manager click on file / new / and type in explorer.exe and press ok, this should return your desktop, you will continue to have many problems until you are fully updated.

 

Have tryed that doesn't work but thanks anyway

 

then you need to run chkdsk, put your cd into the drive, restart pc, and immediately start tapping F2 ( or whatever you use to get into your bios), adjust boot sequence to boot from the cd drive, once you have booted to the cd, press R to get into the recovery console

once the recovery console is up choose 1 for windows, and press enter

if it asks for password just keep pressing enter

then type chkdsk c: /r (notice space between, k and c, also between colon and the forward slash)

press enter, this will be a lengthy process, and if any errors are found and fixed, then run checkdisk again, until no errors are found

then type exit and press enter it will restart, then you can remove the cd and it will boot to the harddrive, or go back into bios and put boot sequence to harddrive first.

 

Ok will try that AS SOON AS I CAN GET A SP1 ISO! have looked and looked so I can do chkdsk but there all exes? Anywhere to download a sp1?

 

you can run checkdisk through windows, try safe mode to see if you can get a desktop, then do the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265/en-us
How to perform checkdisk

if you do not have Recovery Console installed, then run from the start menu

go to start, run, type in cmd

in cmd type in chkdsk c: /r and press enter

type Y for yes and press enter

type exit and press enter

restart pc, allow checkdisk to finish and run again

this is a lengthy process depending on the size of your harddrive, the percentages will fluctuate, this is normal, you can view report in the event viewer.
go to start>run> and type in eventvwr.msc, click on the applications directory, and in the right hand panel choose winlogon.

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or from a working computer you can burn a recovery console iso , with imgburn, to a cd and then run from that:

Here's how to make a bootable xp recovery console cd
Courtesy of JoseIbarra
Since many folks do not have a genuine bootable XP installation CD - either because they never got one with their store bought system, they lost it, broke it, scratched it, the dog ate it, etc. it usually is a dead end to suggest using the XP installation CD (since most people don't have one).

Suggesting it usually just results in wasted email cycles so it make sense to assume that nobody has one. nobody has any friends with one either and contacting your hardware vendor to send you one is also going to be a waste of time.
Instead of suggesting things that will only work some of the time for some people sometimes maybe, I would rather suggest things that are usually going to work all the time for all folks.
This will let you make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD (no XP media required).
If you have no bootable XP media (or are not sure what you have) create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD and be sure.

This is not the same as any recovery disks that might have come with a store bought system.

You can make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD by downloading an ISO file and burning it to a CD.

The bootable ISO image file you need to download is called:

xp_rec_con.iso

Download the ISO file from my OneDrive (everybody has a OneDrive for sharing files):

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=EC673DF6F8DFEE84&id=EC673DF6F8DFEE84!109&authkey=!AEMs5lwt9Todokc


When you see the files available for download, you may not see the file extension (.exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.), but when you download them they will have the correct extension.

When you download the file (especially if you use Internet Explorer), when you get a chance to save the file, your browser may not save the file with an extension (like .exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.) so you will have to manually add the proper extension to the file when you download the file before you save it.

You can download the file with no extension and then rename the file to add the proper extension. You don't want to try to use a file called xp _rec_con when the file name really needs to be called xp_rec_con.iso (if the downloaded file has no extension you will have to change the name of the file to add the proper extension to get it to work.

Use a new CD and this free and easy program to burn your ISO file and create your bootable CD:

http://www.imgburn.com/

Like many third party programs you might install, the ImgBurn installation defaults to installing things you probably don't want installed on your system in the form of extra Internet browser toolbars or may make other adjustments to your browser. You don't want that so you have to pay attention during the installation.

When clicking through the installation screens be sure to pay attention to the screens and always choose a Custom install and UNcheck the following (or any other things like it):

UNcheck:

Install the AVG toolbar and set AVG Secure Search as my default search provider
Set AVG Secure Search as my homepage and newly opened tabs

Choose custom installation again and UNcheck the following:

Uncheck:
Install QuickShare

Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

It would be a good idea to test your bootable CD on a computer that is working.

You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk. These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.

When you boot on the CD, follow the prompts:

Press any key to boot from CD...

The Windows Setup... will proceed.

Press 'R' to enter the Recovery Console.

Select the installation you want to access (usually 1: C:\WINDOWS)

You may be asked to enter the Administrator password (usually empty).

You should be in the C:\WINDOWS folder. This is the same as the C:\WINDOWS folder you see in explorer.

The Recovery Console allows basic file commands like: copy, rename, replace, delete, cd, chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, etc.

For a list of Recovery Console commands, enter help at the prompt or read about the XP Recovery Console here:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ocs/en-us/recovery_console_cmds.mspx?mfr=true

A good idea before starting things is to first verify the integrity of your file system using the chkdsk command.

From the command prompt window run the chkdsk command on the drive where Windows is installed to try to repair any problems on the afflicted drive.

Running chkdsk is fine even if it doesn't find any problems. It will not hurt anything to run it.

Assuming your boot drive is C, run the following command:

chkdsk C: /r

Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.

It may take a long time for chkdsk to complete or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.

You should run chkdsk /r again until it finds no errors to correct.

Remove the CD and type 'exit' to leave the RC and restart the computer.

You do not have to adjust the BIOS again to boot on the HDD since the CD will not be present.

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if you have sata drives you cannot use the recovery console, you will have to burn a Hiren's boot cd and run checkdisk through that.

 

Thx will try later as I have to go to school now