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No icons,no task manager,no taskbar,no start basically nothi

Jun 5, 2012 3:24PM PDT

Early today the computer worked fine, but I restarted it and now it has no icons,no taskbar, no task manager, no start, nothing except the cursor. I really need this to fix so any tips or ideas or information would be greatly appreciated.... Thanks Happy

Discussion is locked

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No details
Jun 5, 2012 10:16PM PDT

of the computer. That makes it harder to help.

Try Safe Mode.

Mark

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Sorry
Jun 6, 2012 4:40AM PDT

Sorry I'm new to this it's a windows xp desktop computer. What other details u need?

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Re: nothing
Jun 5, 2012 10:23PM PDT

No welcome screen?
Or after logging in into your usual account?

If the last, try your spare account.

Kees

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Help
Jun 6, 2012 4:44AM PDT

It loads normal. I only had one account on it.

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Re: only one account
Jun 6, 2012 7:20AM PDT

You might be lucky, because this is XP. The trick below wouldn't work in Vista or 7. That's why we always recommend to have at least 2 administrative accounts on any PC and not to forget the passwords.

The trick is to boot into Safe Mode. Then the secret Administrator account is shown. By default it has no password. If you can login into that, you can make 2 new admin accounts, use one as spare and one for your normal work. Then login into that second one and copy all your files out of the corrupted one before deleting that.

This trick only works if the issue is a corrupted account. If the issue is a corrupted machine the secret administrator account will fail also. Then one of the solutions is a clean install of Windows from the XP CD.

Kees

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Will try
Jun 6, 2012 7:55AM PDT

I tried in safe mode earlier and it said it couldn't work. Should I try it in safe mode in networking? I will try again though

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No luck
Jun 6, 2012 2:50PM PDT

I tried it and it says, We apologize for the inconvenience but windows did not start correctly.

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Re: now what
Jun 6, 2012 8:39PM PDT

Time to get your XP CD and do a repair install of the OS. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm tells how to do it.

You'll be amazed how much work Windows Update will have to do after that to make you current again. Just keep visiting Tools>Windows Update in IE until it's done.

Kees

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???
Jun 7, 2012 4:12AM PDT

Will that clean all my information off?

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It might.
Jun 7, 2012 4:14AM PDT

That's why everyone has backup copies of what they can't lose.
Bob

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Re: repair install
Jun 7, 2012 4:40AM PDT

A repair install of XP, the one time I did it, kept all my data and even all my programs installed.

If it had been the case that my issue was caused by a malware program, that most like would have stayed also. And it that case, I'm afraid, it wouldn't have helped.

But you might be less lucky. If you want to be sure, you copy all that information you don't want to lose to an external hard disk, after booting from some Live Linux disk.

Kees

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??
Jun 7, 2012 8:11AM PDT

So if I do that you think my stuff will stay? What's live Linux disk?

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What I think.
Jun 7, 2012 9:57AM PDT
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Why details matter.
Jun 7, 2012 3:51AM PDT

That failed start could be caused by many things from a corrupt OS (Kees notes how to repair) to something as simple as a printer that is plugged in.

The lack of details means the answers lean to a repair or start over.
Bob

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Quick fix to blank screen
Jun 11, 2012 9:10AM PDT

1)Hit Ctrl+alt+delete
2) open task manager
3) new task
4) type CMD
5) Type explorer in the black box and it shold solve your problem