Computer only displays desktop background, help!

Wiredchild

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Hey everyone. My mate just rang me as his PC, everytime he starts it, displays nothing but the desktop background (no start bar or nothing). He said it was running fine yesterday but got home today, whacked it on, and it does this every time.

I didn't really know what to suggest so can anyone help? I have no idea.

He's running XP home Edition btw.
 
Hmm weird.

Something seems to have happened to some settings.

FIRST PLAN OF ACTION:

Has he by any chance installed Video Drivers recently?

Its possible anyway that his monitor could be displaying a second monitors screen which would only show the desktop.

Tell him to right click the desktop and go to Properties, and go to the 'Settings tab' at the top.

From here, tell him to make sure the monitor is set to display as the first monitor by dragging the little boxes if there are two to the other side, or by simply selecting the right display from the drop down box.

-------------------------------------------------

SECOND PLAN OF ACTION:

If that doesn't work, at least you know that hasn't occured.
This should work in that case.

Ask him to right click the empty desktop first of all, and go to "Arrange Icons By", and select to "Show Desktop Icons".

If that works, nothing is neccessarily wrong.

So, now, My computer should at least display. Tell him to go into that and on the side bar should be an option to go to the Control Panel.

So enter that. (The Windows Key and E should allow for the same type of thing)

Once in there, go to "Taskbar and Start menu"

Make sure it is selected to display, and not to hide itself.

It should hopefully then work.

I hope one of these suggestions works. I am relying more on the first one to be the best soloution :)
 
ASked him about both of those and it seems that his PC displays the desktop, the mouse. And nothing else. Right or left click doesn't do anything. Almost like it's booted but not finnished and stopped???

It does it every time, apparently he's tried it like 50 times and no prevail. NOthing's been changed hardware or software wise including drivers. Just stopped functioning properly when he turned it on today.

Seriously weird and i have no idea what to suggest...Pretty crap eh?

Could it be a problem with the windows installation??

Any other suggestions anyone?
 
lol whacked it on? hope thats a figure of speech. anyway if its new he can get a copy of windows from the maker and re install windows. on it. chances are thats wat it is or his harddrive might be damaged. whats around his pc?
 
Ok boy........I know this one from way back....

Ok, make sure all your harddrive connections are OK, then check back
 
It could also be a virus or malware preventing the proper startup. In any case, the file explorer.exe is either not being allowed to start, or it is starting and being shut down. Explorer.exe is the file for basically the desktop icons and start bar and things like that. If possible, use CTRL+ALT+DELETE to check whether the explorer.exe process is running. I'm guessing it won't be. Try a system restore to a time when things were working. That should clear it up.
 
Hehe, I thoguht I'd solved it with the Video Card on a seperate screen, oh well...

If you can get to the Task Manager by pressing Control, Alt, and Delete like Spank_Fusion says, then you can actually start Explorer yourself if it is not running.

Simply go to File, New Task (Run), and type in:

Explorer

Hopefully if hes lucky, things will start to appear and he can back up files, etc before starting a format and re-installation if necessary.

it'll also allow him to check for problems though also if it comes up :)
 
when he turns on the computer, and he can see the dektop, tell him to press alt + ctrl + del and to open task manager. from there click file --> New teask (Run...) the to type "explorer.exe"

that should start it. Explorer.exe is the name of the shell/program that is used for the taskbar, the windows or anything you see on the screen. if you end the explorer.exe process all your left with is the desktop. so give that a try. hope it works

Nat

EDIT>> oops i didnt notice that the 2 posts above has the same solution hehe
 
I had this problem too once, tell him to try changing the background to a plane one (Blue, black, white ect.) and see if that fixes it.
 
Natalya, tut tut :p

Its proving though that that should work, and seems to be the only way from what I can think of, of starting it up.

If, when you press it, nothing appears, like with the menus, something else is wrong.
 
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