When I turn on my computer I get only the screen saver picture. There are no Icons nor task bar. I have run my antivirus CDRom thinking maybe that was the problem but it didn't help. I have tried opening it in the "safe" mode by clicking f5 as the computer comes on. Then I get a message that the program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. What can I try next or do I need professional help ?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Assuming that you don't have an Windows EBD (emergency boot floppy disk) try to boot to a Command prompt (DOS) and see if you can run 'Scandisk', then run 'Scanreg /restore and select a last known-good system registry to boot from. Go here to read about scanreg -- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q183887


On Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 9:19 am, RLF wrote:
>When I turn on my computer I get only the screen saver picture. There are no Icons
>nor task bar. I have run my antivirus CDRom thinking maybe that was the problem but
>it didn't help. I have tried opening it in the "safe" mode by clicking f5 as the
>computer comes on. Then I get a message that the program has performed an illegal
>operation and will be shut down. What can I try next or do I need professional help
>?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had a similar problem with a customers computer. It turned out to be a virus that corrupted the explore.exe file but was not detected by Norton Antivirus. I formatted the hard drive and re-installed windows, but the problem persisted. What finally resolved the issue was flashing the BIOS, running FDISK and recreating the primary DOS partition and the installing windows. If you've been careful to keep up to date backups of your data files, this shouldn't be too big an issue for you.


On Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 9:19 am, RLF wrote:
>When I turn on my computer I get only the screen saver picture. There are no Icons
>nor task bar. I have run my antivirus CDRom thinking maybe that was the problem but
>it didn't help. I have tried opening it in the "safe" mode by clicking f5 as the
>computer comes on. Then I get a message that the program has performed an illegal
>operation and will be shut down. What can I try next or do I need professional help
>?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

After installing TweakUI today for Win98SE and applying some changes I made with the program it decided to wipe all visual evidence of any icon in the system. I couldn't find a reg entry that pertained to this problem so I scoured Google for an answer and came up with this site and page but wasn't satisfied with the answers. First rule of computer repair is this simplest solution is usually correct. With that in mind I right clicked on the desktop and selected Properties. I clicked the Appearance tab and selected Icon from the Item drop down box. The Icon -> Size was set to 16, it should be 32 so I changed it. All this is being done in Safe Mode which I probably didn't have to but did anyway. Imediately the icons were back but in black and white. A quick soft reset of the computer and the icons came back in all its full color glory, hallelujah! Now for a little clean up. For some reason the Vertical and Horizontal Icon spacing was off (set to 75) so I changed it to 40, I think that was the norm, and it looked good. So here is my solution and I hope it works for whomever seeking an answer to this particular problem.


On Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 9:19 am, RLF wrote:
>When I turn on my computer I get only the screen saver picture. There are no Icons
>nor task bar. I have run my antivirus CDRom thinking maybe that was the problem but
>it didn't help. I have tried opening it in the "safe" mode by clicking f5 as the
>computer comes on. Then I get a message that the program has performed an illegal
>operation and will be shut down. What can I try next or do I need professional help
>?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

W98SE, Dell Optiplex PII-400, running fine until kids banging on keyboard playing frogger. Started next day with windows logo, login to server window, I responded, with either correct user/password or cancel, and... hourglass (no server if u/p entered, click ok) then get background with mouse pointer and the taskbar quickly flashes there and gone. CAD results in close program with nothing there. Can shut down and go to safe mode with same results or to command prompt. Am checking bootlog and will enter info as i get it. replaced explorer.exe and same results. Scanreg /restore (2 diff reg dates) same results. No virus with f-prot(dos, 072203 sigs). Scandisk, no probs. OK where do we go from here. Thanks beforehand. f


On Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 9:19 am, RLF wrote:
>When I turn on my computer I get only the screen saver picture. There are no Icons
>nor task bar. I have run my antivirus CDRom thinking maybe that was the problem but
>it didn't help. I have tried opening it in the "safe" mode by clicking f5 as the
>computer comes on. Then I get a message that the program has performed an illegal
>operation and will be shut down. What can I try next or do I need professional help
>?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I am OK using a PC but don't know much about fixing one! I have this problem on my laptop - I think it is a virus because for a very brief moment in the left hand corner "explorer.exe" flashes up. I get no icons or desktop & do not understand how to fix it - can anyone give me step by step (and I mean with no jargon you will need to explain everything!!) instructions to me on how to fix it, I cannot survive without my computer please help!! Sharna


On Tuesday, July 9, 2002 at 10:35 am, Mike wrote:
>Assuming that you don't have an Windows EBD (emergency boot floppy disk) try to boot
>to a Command prompt (DOS) and see if you can run 'Scandisk', then run 'Scanreg /restore
>and select a last known-good system registry to boot from.
>
>Go here to read about scanreg --
>
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q183887
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Fred, did you ever find a solution to your problem? I have the same one.


On Monday, July 28, 2003 at 5:55 pm, fred wrote:
>W98SE, Dell Optiplex PII-400, running fine until kids banging on keyboard playing
>frogger. Started next day with windows logo, login to server window, I responded,
>with either correct user/password or cancel, and... hourglass (no server if u/p entered,
>click ok) then get background with mouse pointer and the taskbar quickly flashes
>there and gone. CAD results in close program with nothing there. Can shut down
>and go to safe mode with same results or to command prompt. Am checking bootlog
>and will enter info as i get it. replaced explorer.exe and same results. Scanreg
>/restore (2 diff reg dates) same results. No virus with f-prot(dos, 072203 sigs).
>Scandisk, no probs. OK where do we go from here. Thanks beforehand. f
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

HOW I FIXED IT. THANKS TO ALL THE WEBBERS... to the best of my recollection and research... There are files that are associated to IE (version specific) that are needed for 98. These files are not restored or fixed with sfc (they should be but for some reason MS decided not to???) The files are shdoc???.dll where the ??? are 401 or vw or lc. Some research on these, as to what version IE you have, to put back the right ones will be needed. I don't have the web sites for all the info anymore, but use the file names in your search and it should help. My system is fine now but it was very time consuming. Good Luck. danton


On Monday, July 28, 2003 at 5:55 pm, fred wrote:
>W98SE, Dell Optiplex PII-400, running fine until kids banging on keyboard playing
>frogger. Started next day with windows logo, login to server window, I responded,
>with either correct user/password or cancel, and... hourglass (no server if u/p entered,
>click ok) then get background with mouse pointer and the taskbar quickly flashes
>there and gone. CAD results in close program with nothing there. Can shut down
>and go to safe mode with same results or to command prompt. Am checking bootlog
>and will enter info as i get it. replaced explorer.exe and same results. Scanreg
>/restore (2 diff reg dates) same results. No virus with f-prot(dos, 072203 sigs).
>Scandisk, no probs. OK where do we go from here. Thanks beforehand. f
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

A corrupted ShellIconCache file in C:\windows may be causing the problem. It will appear as shelli~1 if you can see it form DOS, but you can’t because it is a hidden file. Change it so you can see and delete it with: C:\windows>attrib shelli* -H (you may have to copy the attrib command from C:\windows\command if you are booting to a floppy of add that directory to the path. It may also be a system file è C:\windows>attrib shelli* -S Erase it: C:\windows>erase shelli* Starting Windows after this is complete should rebuild the file.


On Monday, July 28, 2003 at 5:55 pm, fred wrote:
>W98SE, Dell Optiplex PII-400, running fine until kids banging on keyboard playing
>frogger. Started next day with windows logo, login to server window, I responded,
>with either correct user/password or cancel, and... hourglass (no server if u/p entered,
>click ok) then get background with mouse pointer and the taskbar quickly flashes
>there and gone. CAD results in close program with nothing there. Can shut down
>and go to safe mode with same results or to command prompt. Am checking bootlog
>and will enter info as i get it. replaced explorer.exe and same results. Scanreg
>/restore (2 diff reg dates) same results. No virus with f-prot(dos, 072203 sigs).
>Scandisk, no probs. OK where do we go from here. Thanks beforehand. f
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks for your response, please see HOW I FIXED IT in the thread of responses.


On Wednesday, January 7, 2004 at 12:24 pm, Adam wrote:
>A corrupted ShellIconCache file in C:\windows may be causing the problem. It will
>appear as shelli~1 if you can see it form DOS, but you can’t because it is a hidden
>file. Change it so you can see and delete it with:
>C:\windows>attrib shelli* -H (you may have to copy the attrib command from C:\windows\command
>if you are booting to a floppy of add that directory to the path.
>It may also be a system file è
>C:\windows>attrib shelli* -S
>Erase it:
>C:\windows>erase shelli*
>Starting Windows after this is complete should rebuild the file.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i tried the solution that was posted, it didnt fully work, gave an illegal operation on boot which was good enough because the taskbar stayed and enabled me to upgrade the Internet Explorer version to 6.0 which then resolved the problem


On Friday, November 28, 2003 at 3:01 pm, Mike wrote:
>Fred, did you ever find a solution to your problem?
>I have the same one.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

the solution with replacing the dll's,


On Wednesday, January 7, 2004 at 5:57 pm, thaphoenix wrote:
>
>i tried the solution that was posted, it didnt fully work, gave an illegal operation
>on boot which was good enough because the taskbar stayed and enabled me to upgrade
>the Internet Explorer version to 6.0 which then resolved the problem
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Gateway's support site has a great step-by-step guide to fix this. At least it worked for me and I thought it might work for some other people who found this forum through googling "windows 98 missing taskbar" Basically, it is a problem with Explorer.exe and the fix involves altering system.ini to get you a usable file manager in windows and rolling back explorer to a previous version. It's a pretty easy fix. Here's the link (see method 2): http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-1330790523.shtml


On Monday, January 5, 2004 at 9:05 am, fred wrote:
>HOW I FIXED IT. THANKS TO ALL THE WEBBERS...
> to the best of my recollection and research... There are files that are associated
>to IE (version specific) that are needed for 98. These files are not restored or
>fixed with sfc (they should be but for some reason MS decided not to???) The files
>are shdoc???.dll where the ??? are 401 or vw or lc. Some research on these, as
>to what version IE you have, to put back the right ones will be needed. I don't
>have the web sites for all the info anymore, but use the file names in your search
>and it should help. My system is fine now but it was very time consuming. Good
>Luck. danton
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I had the problem described, and applied most of the fix recommendations on this subject. then I tried Danton's. However, I first did a DIR to look for the files and see if I was missing any of the "shdoc???.dll" files, but I did the DIR using an "*" in place of the "dll". I found that I was missing the "shdocvw.dll" and the "shdocvw.exe" files after I replaced the missing files my PC is back to how it was working before the problem..... gordon


On Monday, January 5, 2004 at 9:05 am, fred wrote:
>HOW I FIXED IT. THANKS TO ALL THE WEBBERS...
> to the best of my recollection and research... There are files that are associated
>to IE (version specific) that are needed for 98. These files are not restored or
>fixed with sfc (they should be but for some reason MS decided not to???) The files
>are shdoc???.dll where the ??? are 401 or vw or lc. Some research on these, as
>to what version IE you have, to put back the right ones will be needed. I don't
>have the web sites for all the info anymore, but use the file names in your search
>and it should help. My system is fine now but it was very time consuming. Good
>Luck. danton
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

here's a link to an ms kb on how to tell what version of ie you have. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=164539&product=ie


On Monday, January 5, 2004 at 9:05 am, fred wrote:
>HOW I FIXED IT. THANKS TO ALL THE WEBBERS...
> to the best of my recollection and research... There are files that are associated
>to IE (version specific) that are needed for 98. These files are not restored or
>fixed with sfc (they should be but for some reason MS decided not to???) The files
>are shdoc???.dll where the ??? are 401 or vw or lc. Some research on these, as
>to what version IE you have, to put back the right ones will be needed. I don't
>have the web sites for all the info anymore, but use the file names in your search
>and it should help. My system is fine now but it was very time consuming. Good
>Luck. danton
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Greatly appreciate these links. This was blowing my mind. Problem fixed.


On Monday, January 12, 2004 at 2:14 pm, adam wrote:
>Gateway's support site has a great step-by-step guide to fix this. At least it worked
>for me and I thought it might work for some other people who found this forum through
>googling "windows 98 missing taskbar" Basically, it is a problem with Explorer.exe
>and the fix involves altering system.ini to get you a usable file manager in windows
>and rolling back explorer to a previous version. It's a pretty easy fix. Here's
>the link (see method 2):
>
>http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-1330790523.shtml
>
>

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