Desktop image ONLY

Have a Dell Inspiron. Last night when I booted it, it seemed to go throught the normal booting process up through the screen user choice, then the desktop image only comes up with no icons showing any programs or even the start menu. Help?? Merci!!!

 

Does it do that every single time? Does it freeze right away?

If that happens just once in a while (without freezing) I would just press CTRL+ALT+DEL, then select file->New Task(Run...) and type in explorer.exe. If not I don't really know what's happening, although that has happened to me before. It went away on its own.

 

OMG!1 I thought you were calling ME an idiot! And the thing is, I felt I was totally deserving because I know it's something really stupid I've done to cause all this. It goes through the welcome screen, the user selection, downloads personal settings, and then the screen image comes up with nothing else. Every time. It started overnight. I tried what you said but when I typed explorer. exe, nothing happened. I was able to get into other programs though from that, so at least I know my stuff is still there. Now, however, I can't even get that ctrl/alt/del thing to work. It's just the screen image and the screen saver. Thanks so much for your help!! Apparently, mine is not going to fix itself.

 

sorry i made this username when i was like 12 and didn't go on it for four years.

Anyways, using the taskmanager to get to your programs is a bit of an annoyance isn't it?

you didn't type explorer.exe with the space after the period did you? because that won't work. You could try doing a repair with your XP CD, though i'm not really sure as to how the repair utility works. Maybe somebody else can shed some light on this problem