re: I have lost all icons and start menu functions
Monday, January 2, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Benjamin Choate
(1 messages posted)
It sounds like like the process for explorer (not internet explorer) is either not
loading, or is being shutdown somehow. I don't know if XP can even start up without
a functioning explorer.exe, but I know for sure that you can kill explorer after
booting to produce the effect that you (and some of those that responded) are complaining
about.
You can see what I mean on a functional XP machine:
(warning: read through before attempting)
Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the Task Manager.
Click onto the Processes tab
Find and highlight "explorer.exe" in the list of processes (you might want to click
on "Image Name" at the top to list them in alphabetical order so as to find it more
easily).
Click "End Process", then "Yes" on the popup warning message.
You'll notice that the Start Menu, Taskbar, and desktop icons have disappeared, but
any programs you have previously loaded are still there.
To restore them select "File", "New Task(Run...)", then type "explorer" (without
the quotation marks), and hit enter. This will reload explorer.exe and your icons,
start menu, taskbar etc will reappear.
For those struggling with this issue it seems to me that one easy way to test this
would be to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the Task Manager, then select the Processes
tab and look to see if explorer.exe is there. If you can't find it, then that's
the cause of your problem. You could then try to load it manually as I instructed
above. If that doesn't work, it may be that the file itself has become corrupted
or deleted and you'll need to replace it somehow (via system repair or reinstallation
of the operating system etc.) I suppose it's also possible that some kind of virus
is preventing explorer.exe from loading, so it might behoove you to run an anti-virus
and adware/spyware scan before attempting anything drastic.
If this isn't related, then you have my condolences. ;_(
-Ben
On Saturday, January 29, 2005 at 3:52 pm, Derek wrote:
>I have lost all icons on my desktop and cannot access the start menu. I can run
>programs by hitting ctrl-alt-del and selecting the program through Task Manager,
>but cannot access anything through the desktop. Does anyone know how to fix this?
>
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 |  | re: I have lost all icons and start menu functions (Benjamin Choate: Mon, Jan 2, 2006, 9:53 pm) |
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