Lost my Desktop icons

tronator

GDudley wrote: »

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.

I'm struggling a bit with this. Do you know the difference between "downloading" and "installing"?

As for backing up. If this data is important to you you should make a backup anyway. What if your hard disk fails tomorrow?

closed

When explorer works via task manager, are your icons there, and if not does everything function normally other than the missing icons?

If so the next step would be to start regedit, and check that explorer is your default shell.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell = "Explorer.exe"


An external usb hard disk (seagate/maxtor or WD have free disk imaging software available), and free disk imaging software makes backing up and restoring straightforward and fast. If you want to keep your data, avoid doing anything drastic (sp3, re-installs, repairs) at this stage.

aardware

I'm with closed on this one

GDudley

Hi Guys
Thanks for your continuing help; to answer your questions...
I made sure Explorer was closed via Task Manager, then restarted it by Task manager (explorer.exe). This brings up the "My Documents" page. From there I can go "up" to Desktop page.
I've used regedit to look for that file "CLOSED" but can't find it, there are 5 directory "tree's" with tons of files but doing a "find" (CTRL F) in each tree doesn't locate it, I also tried searching for *logon* but again no luck.
When I said I had downloaded SP3 I also meant I had installed and run it.
I know I should have been more diligent doing backups but I've been neglectful in this and am now regreting it.
Thanks

closed

in regedit find by clicking the tree

HKeyLlocalMachine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

then look at the contents, is it explorer?

GDudley

Lost my icons.
Hi "CLOSED", yep, it's exactly as you said ... "HKeyLlocalMachine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell"
I seem to be using up my supply of good help from you techie's so could a solution be to just buy an external HDD and reload XP and copy all my files over. The thing that worries me is if my current problem is caused by a "bug" will I transfer that as well and be back in the same position as now. (I see 2.5" and 3.5" HDD's offered, is either preferable?)

Lil306

Couple things I'd like to ask and suggest....

• What exactly is your screen resolution "as is" right now with this problem?

Right click on your desktop, properties, settings, make sure it's at least 800x600 (or ideally 1024x768 to make sure everything is displayed)

• Booting computer in safe mode, and logon as administrator

Switch on your computer and keep pressing F8, choose safe mode and let it start. If the screen displays properly it could be a newly installed program. Make sure to logon both the Administrator account, and your normal user account. If both display fine, then chances are it software, service or driver causing the issue

• While in safe mode, open c:\documents & settings and see if your profile is correct (shows your name, i.e Bob), if there is one that says BOB.Computer or TEMP it's possible you've got some profile corruption. You could also check this by right clicking my computer and selecting manage, choosing event viewer and system then seeing NT Profile message appears.

Any chance you could also post a screenshot of the problem, can you access network resources like the Internet? To be honest it sounds a bit like a corrupted system file with some profile corruption. I'd like to try in safe mode first however.

GDudley

Hi
The screen resolution is 1280 x 1024.
I tried rebooting in SAFE MODE as Administrator and as me (Gerry) and both loaded ok. I seemed to get a pretty normal loadup albeit at a lower resolution in both.
I did right-click in My Computer and located manage/event-viewer/system which bought up a ton of files but non of them said NT Profile.
I'm afraid I couldn't find how to do a screen-shot of my Desktop (which I take to mean my Desktop splash screen with the missing icons) but it is the bog standard "appearance" selection in Control Panel/Display/Appearance/Azul with a blue sea and an island with palm tree's. The only difference is that I don't have my icons on the screen and the Task bar at the bottom is missing and doesn't come on when I press "Start", nor move the curson to the bottom of the screen, nor right-click with my mouse.
I can get onto the internet fine and all of my programs seem to work ok.
Thanks

Lil306

GDudley wrote: »

Hi
The screen resolution is 1280 x 1024.
I tried rebooting in SAFE MODE as Administrator and as me (Gerry) and both loaded ok. I seemed to get a pretty normal loadup albeit at a lower resolution in both.
I did right-click in My Computer and located manage/event-viewer/system which bought up a ton of files but non of them said NT Profile.
I'm afraid I couldn't find how to do a screen-shot of my Desktop (which I take to mean my Desktop splash screen with the missing icons) but it is the bog standard "appearance" selection in Control Panel/Display/Appearance/Azul with a blue sea and an island with palm tree's. The only difference is that I don't have my icons on the screen and the Task bar at the bottom is missing and doesn't come on when I press "Start", nor move the curson to the bottom of the screen, nor right-click with my mouse.
I can get onto the internet fine and all of my programs seem to work ok.
Thanks

EDIT : MAJOR NOTE, I know you mentioned somewhere you had 130gb of data, even if you can only find a temporary backup source it would be worth considering grabbing your important documents just incase.

Hi Gerry,

Sorry my question was kind of trying to probe if you issue lies more with your profile or a damaged system file / system setup of some sort

When you logged in under safe mode, on the admistrator and your account, did you get your desktop icons / start menu?

EDIT - I note you said both OK, if you mean by icons / start menu, then the problem lies with a service loading up when you start up. You could try a selective startup on the computer.

Also, were you able to check the c:\documents & settings

Normally when you are missing icons / menus, it can be down to the Windows Explorer Shell not loading either due to corruption, or a faulty Windows Profile (which is possible)

Another method, would be to create a brand new account in the control panel (under user accounts) and try logging on with that. If everything is hunky dory, then the problem is specific to your account and it most likely suggests to me it's corrupted

If the problem occurs with the new account, then the issues could most likely be with the Windows Explorer Shell or system files which you may be able to fix by running sfc.exe /scannow command with a Windows XP CD-Rom in the drive, you can access the cmd prompt by Navigating to c:\windows\system32 directory from My Computer

Apologies if I'm going over old stuff, I'm having a bit of a lazy day today as I'm busy fixing my webserver atm but those are the things I'd be tempted to look at...

P.S - To take a screenshot press Print Screen / PrtScn (next to F12) open up an editing program (i.e MS Paint) and Edit - Paste, then upload that file somewhere for screenshots

The most important tests to do are in safe mode
- New user account, logon as that (does it work, yey or ney?)
- Logon as yourself, and administrator (does that work,)
- Check c:\documents & settings, any "temp" or "Gerry.pcname" folders?

Corrupted profiles are easy to restore, so are corrupted shells it's just more fiddly, but you need to ascertain where the problem lies before you start any corrective work

EDIT, here's a screenshot of a corrupted profile (on my PC) I haven't bothered to fix it yet

Orville

If you can boot into safe mode, can you do a system restore to a point before this happened..?