It sounds like the instance of Windows Explorer which provides the desktop
and task bar has died, and for some reason the hook that is supposed to
automatically relaunch it hasn't done so.
  She should be able to start "explore.exe" from the task manager.  A reboot
should also fix it, but if she tries it from the task manager and it doesn't
work, she may have other options, whereas if it fails to launch on a reboot
then her options will be much more limited.

David Gillett


On 26 Jan 2005 at 16:56, V. E. Harrison wrote:

> Yesterday, my daughter de-avtivated system restore and then did a scan with
> AVG, Spybot, and Adaware after updating each.  After all the scans were
> finished, she re-activated her system restore and her desktop vanished.  No
> icons, no taskbar, no start button, just her background wallpaper.
>
> She is running XP home edition on a HP Pavilion desktop.
>
> When she three fingers (Alt., Crtl., Delete) her task manager comes up but
> she is unable to access her programs since she has no start button or
> desktop icons.  She also tells me that when she tries to right click on the
> blank desktop, no dialog box pops up which means that she is unable to
> click on "show desktop icons".
>
> Seems to me that there is a simple way to restore her desktop icons and
> toolbar but, for the life of me, I can't remember how.
>
> Can someone clue this 'ole guy in about what to tell her to do.  I'll be
> coaching her over the phone, so try to keep it simple for this 'ole simpleton.
>
> Thanks in advance.
> V. E. "Gene" Harrison

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