PC not loading desktop icons or toolbar

[CWD82]

OK so here's the situation.

 

I loaded up my PC this morning and when it came on it loaded fine, it showed the welcome to windows page and all looked normal. The background loaded and that was that. No desktop icons. No toolbar across the bottom. Nothing

 

I ctrl + alt + del to see whats running and it shows alot less items are running than normal.

 

So I clicked on applications and new task and was able to get the internet explorer to work hence how I am typing.

 

I then read a few threads on here some suggesting download a malware programme and run it in safe mode (I did this). The problem was when I start in safe mode the same issue. No desktop

 

I tried to run in "last known clean startup" or some other title and again no desktop. The internet is running fine. It is showing that McAfee is running in the Mcafee bar but I can't access anything.

 

Please can someone help me with this as I am really stuck.

[Guest The Big Green Bastard]

If you can get into safemode see if you can run

 

Start > Run > cmd

 

sfc /scannow

 

 

This should give you a better description of the error, Once you have the error, sometihng like 0x000006ba (RPC) you could google the solution better from that error message.

[Caramac]

Going for the obvious here first mate but its always worth a try,

 

Right click on desktop

Arrange icons by

And make sure the "show desktop icons" is ticked

 

Thats if you are running xp, not sure if vista is the same

[CWD82]

If you can get into safemode see if you can run

 

Start > Run > cmd

 

sfc /scannow

 

 

This should give you a better description of the error, Once you have the error, sometihng like 0x000006ba (RPC) you could google the solution better from that error message.

 

Mate I really don't know what I'm doing to be honest. I'm pressing F8 and getting into that list of options where it will allow me to run safemode, safemode with command prompt etc. When I go into safe mode it won't let me run anything. Should I be looking to run a different safemode?

 

Thanks for your help

[CWD82]

Going for the obvious here first mate but its always worth a try,

 

Right click on desktop

Arrange icons by

And make sure the "show desktop icons" is ticked

 

Thats if you are running xp, not sure if vista is the same

 

Thanks mate but alas. I can't click anything. Nothing runs. I think EXPLORER.EXE has been disabled somehow

 

I think this one because it's not in the processes list and two, I if I click on this website and click "save as" on something everything is still there when it asks where to save it to

[Caramac]

Thanks mate but alas. I can't click anything. Nothing runs. I think EXPLORER.EXE has been disabled somehow

 

I think this one because it's not in the processes list and two, I if I click on this website and click "save as" on something everything is still there when it asks where to save it to

 

Ah well always worth a try l suppose, hope you get sorted quickly.

[Guest The Big Green Bastard]

You could try and do a repair installation and create a diiferent profile login, this has been known to work but alas you will still need to track down the problem which is usually a registry problem

[CWD82]

Thanks for the advise so far.

 

Somehow I managed to get combofix running in safemode and it has sorted the immediate problem out. I found that all my mcafee anti-virus stuff had been switched off. I have the log that is created at the end of the scan and I am going to post it now.

 

I had one problem though. When the system reloaded I had a mcafee prompt telling me mcafee had detected a programme that needs removing and then when I said to remove it it said it couldn't. and to remove it manually.

 

Only problem is I can't find the fucker now!

[Nick Leeson]

is explorer.exe alive in your task manager? If not try starting it the same way you did iexplore.exe

[Uncle_Meat]

Thanks for the advise so far.

 

Somehow I managed to get combofix running in safemode and it has sorted the immediate problem out. I found that all my mcafee anti-virus stuff had been switched off. I have the log that is created at the end of the scan and I am going to post it now.

 

I had one problem though. When the system reloaded I had a mcafee prompt telling me mcafee had detected a programme that needs removing and then when I said to remove it it said it couldn't. and to remove it manually.

 

Only problem is I can't find the fucker now!

 

Combofix might have already removed the offending file that Mcafee (now that its working again) finally detected.

 

Mcafee finding a virus. Fancy that!

 

As I've just noticed Leeson pointing out, firing up explorer.exe from task manager is one way of getting around, but I assume all is well now?

 

Download and run a scan with Malwarebytes Antimalware too once you're finished, just to tidy things up.

[CWD82]

is explorer.exe alive in your task manager? If not try starting it the same way you did iexplore.exe

 

That's a good point. I didn't try it before but combofix has got it working again. Thanks for the advice though, I'll try that in the future

[CWD82]

Combofix might have already removed the offending file that Mcafee (now that its working again) finally detected.

 

Mcafee finding a virus. Fancy that!

 

As I've just noticed Leeson pointing out, firing up explorer.exe from task manager is one way of getting around, but I assume all is well now?

 

Download and run a scan with Malwarebytes Antimalware too once you're finished, just to tidy things up.

 

Haha I spoke to soon about Mcafee. It actually was detecting the combofix programme as an untrustworthy file.

 

As I was halfway through a Mcafee scan the virus protection and spyware scanner turned themselves off automatically which is worrying

 

I'll do this Malware thing now to make sure. Thanks for the tip

[FrenchEyeGlass]

Had this exact problem with my Laptop.

 

Explorer.exe is not working on your system if you get this problem. That is 95% the cause of the problem, trust me.

 

To fix it, you either have to find Explorer.exe on your system (if its there) and execute it again, or (what i had to do) find somebody else with the same operating system as me, to send me Explorer.exe

 

The second will work fine and will never mess up your system. It is generic across all versions of an operating system.

 

If you have XP simply find somebody with XP and tell them to find Explorer.exe in their window files, zip it and send it to you via messenger or email. Same for Vista.

 

 

Once youv got it, copy it into your windows folder and execute it.

 

Bamski - You have your toolbar and desktop back.

 

Okay, i just read the responses quickly and it seems like youv already fixed the problem. Ah well :D information doesnt hurt does it!