Lost my Desktop icons

closed

to reinstall windows or do a repair, you would have to boot from the cd, rather than run it inside windows, however you will lose your data with a reinstall

closed

no start button usually means explorer isn't running, so try to start it in task manager

GDudley

Hi Closed
I definitely don't want to overwrite my data, there's about 1.3Gb of it. Is it possible to do a "repair" type re-install where I don't lose my existing data?

closed

depends which disc you have got.

have you got any means of backup? external hard disk?

please answer whether you can run explorer from task manager?

B33fy

There is a repair install available using XP which does not lose your data

Boot the computer with your XP disc in,at first select XP install (not the repair option strangely).
At the second option, it should offer you the chance to do a repair install.

Good luck

tronator

GDudley wrote: »

...Maybe because I have downloaded Service Pack 2 in the past?.
Sorry to be so rambling; any idea's what I can try next?

Does it mean you still run only SP2? Try to install SP3 since support for SP2 has officially ended. If this still doesn't solve your problem, you need to boot from your Windows CD to make a fresh install. Of course after you made a backup of your files.

phxweb

tronator wrote: »

Does it mean you still run only SP2? Try to install SP3 since support for SP2 has officially ended. If this still doesn't solve your problem, you need to boot from your Windows CD to make a fresh install. Of course after you made a backup of your files.

OP doesnt have any options to install SP3... as windows is not loading completly

Op- If you boot off the Windows CD and select to install windows (not R - repair at the first screen) windows should try and detect previous installations and give you the option to repair.

tronator

phxweb wrote: »

OP doesnt have any options to install SP3... as windows is not loading completly

He obviously was able to download and install Malwarebytes. I can't see why he can't do the same with SP3. Here's the direct link to it

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

GDudley

Hi Guys. In answer to your questions...
I've downloaded SP3 but it seems to make no diffence.
I said I had 1.3Gb of data on the HDD but I should have said 130Gb, so its a real pain to try to back that lot up. If I type "explorer" in the Task Manager I get the usual Explorer page. Is it definite that if I boot up from CD (this is the one DELL gave me with the pc) and choose to "install" Windows I get a second option to "Repair" the existing Windows installation without overwriting or losing any data? I'm dead nervous about it.
If I buy another HDD (external) and install my Windows on it will I be able to "migrate" my programs and files onto it without having to re-install every program, also, being an external drive will it be signicantly slower that an internal one?
Thanks

aardware

I would do what was previously suggested with starting a new explorer task, but i don't think anyone has suggested ending the old one first yet!

ctrl+alt+delete and start task manager.
go to the processes tab and find explorer.exe
click on end task then ok
then go to the applications tab > new task > explorer.exe