HELP - I've lost my desktop!!!
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Hello Josh, Try deleting the following file from your WINNT directory: ShellIconCache The file is a hidden file and has no extension. When this file is corrupted, the desktop will not load correctly. It is safe to delete the file. Windows will recreate it for you. Kind regards, Tim
If you use task manager to run explorer.exe, does it load the taskbar too? "das leid schlaft in der maschine" -Einstürzende Neubauten
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This sounds similar to the symptoms of my machine when it was infected with Code Red. Are you virus definitions up to date? Have you installed the Code Red/Blue patches? Jon Sagara Sagara Software
I dont think its a virus. Norton's up-to-date and I've very careful with attachments and downloaded files. Funny thing is that I can still run everything by launching windows explorer from the task manager. Thanks Josh josh@that-guy.net
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No error messages and everything works fine except for no desktop shell. Yup, probably screwed. Josh josh@that-guy.net
Can you see the start button? One trick I use when explorer freezes is to CTRL-ALT-DEL, launch the task manager and first try killing explorer, and if it doesn't reload, click on the Applications tab, hit the new task button and type in explore. HTH, David
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If you use task manager to run explorer.exe, does it load the taskbar too? "das leid schlaft in der maschine" -Einstürzende Neubauten
Explorer.exe only runs windows explorer( the file viewer with the tree view). It doesn't actually load a windows shell. So no toolbars, taskbar, context menu, startmenu. Just the background. Very strange. Josh josh@that-guy.net
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Can you see the start button? One trick I use when explorer freezes is to CTRL-ALT-DEL, launch the task manager and first try killing explorer, and if it doesn't reload, click on the Applications tab, hit the new task button and type in explore. HTH, David
"...hit the new task button and type in explore." Do you type 'explore' as above or 'explorer'? I've even tried setting the registry value for the shell to explorer.exe but all it does is launch windoze explorer, no shell. Josh josh@that-guy.net
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Hello Josh, Try deleting the following file from your WINNT directory: ShellIconCache The file is a hidden file and has no extension. When this file is corrupted, the desktop will not load correctly. It is safe to delete the file. Windows will recreate it for you. Kind regards, Tim
I deleted the file as suggested. Apparently, since my shell is never loaded this file does not get recreated. Don't worry though it did no harm either way. Looks like I'm going down for a reinstall. Wish me luck..... Josh josh@that-guy.net
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"...hit the new task button and type in explore." Do you type 'explore' as above or 'explorer'? I've even tried setting the registry value for the shell to explorer.exe but all it does is launch windoze explorer, no shell. Josh josh@that-guy.net
Ooops... you're correct it's explorer, but it doesn't sound like it helped you anyway. When I lose my taskbar this usually bails me out, which is why I recommended it. Must be something else. David
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I deleted the file as suggested. Apparently, since my shell is never loaded this file does not get recreated. Don't worry though it did no harm either way. Looks like I'm going down for a reinstall. Wish me luck..... Josh josh@that-guy.net
Good luck. It's for reasons like this I use Partition Magic and have 2 lots of Win2K installed as well as W98. I'm just now out of hard drive space ( filled 80 gig ), so I need to buy another 40 gig drive, and I'll be expanding my OS's when I do ( might even install Linux ;)) We support W95 here, so I'd like to have a close to virgin copy on my machine for testing purposes. The main benefit of PM though is when an OS goes south, as they do, I can reinstall at my leisure, and keep doing other things simply by rebooting. Christian As I learn the innermost secrets of the around me, they reward me in many ways to keep quiet. Men with pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought Jewellery.
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I've got win2k sp2. My system crashed. After rebooting I could log in and my background appeared but the rest of the desktop failed to load(no taskbar, toolbars, rt-click menu). I can run apps through the task manager and my network works, just no desktop. I've tried all sorts of suggestions from the microsoft support forums, none of which work. Anyone know how to fix this? If I have to reinstall windoze will all my apps be ok? Thanks Josh josh@that-guy.net
If you look in taskmanager are there an explorer.exe process already running? If there is starting a second one only brings up an explorer window, otherwise you should get the taskbar and the rest of the stuff since it is all hosted by explorer. If it is try and kill it first. (that is in the normal case) There is also a setting in w2k where you can specify another shell to startup as default, maybe that is corrupted?
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Good luck. It's for reasons like this I use Partition Magic and have 2 lots of Win2K installed as well as W98. I'm just now out of hard drive space ( filled 80 gig ), so I need to buy another 40 gig drive, and I'll be expanding my OS's when I do ( might even install Linux ;)) We support W95 here, so I'd like to have a close to virgin copy on my machine for testing purposes. The main benefit of PM though is when an OS goes south, as they do, I can reinstall at my leisure, and keep doing other things simply by rebooting. Christian As I learn the innermost secrets of the around me, they reward me in many ways to keep quiet. Men with pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought Jewellery.
Yeah, fortunately I've got Partition Magic and have most of my stuff safe on separate partitions. And of course it makes it easy to make room for linux. I've got Slackware running nicely on my machine and I've never had to reinstall it. I'd highly recommend it if you go for linux. Anyways, I'm off to configure windoze for the zillionth time. Josh josh@that-guy.net
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If you look in taskmanager are there an explorer.exe process already running? If there is starting a second one only brings up an explorer window, otherwise you should get the taskbar and the rest of the stuff since it is all hosted by explorer. If it is try and kill it first. (that is in the normal case) There is also a setting in w2k where you can specify another shell to startup as default, maybe that is corrupted?
Its very strange, there were no instances of explorer running and starting it only got me the file manager. I'd tried the setting for the shell by specifying explorer but it would just boot up and run the file manager with no shell. Something was f*cked up so I just reinstalled windoze yet again. thanks though... Josh josh@that-guy.net
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I've got win2k sp2. My system crashed. After rebooting I could log in and my background appeared but the rest of the desktop failed to load(no taskbar, toolbars, rt-click menu). I can run apps through the task manager and my network works, just no desktop. I've tried all sorts of suggestions from the microsoft support forums, none of which work. Anyone know how to fix this? If I have to reinstall windoze will all my apps be ok? Thanks Josh josh@that-guy.net
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Thats what I would like to know! The worst thing that has happened to my W2K (ack Y2K flash backs, delete from memory, delete) is daft Explorer sometimes shows ALL folders with a + next to them, whether they have children or not or are open or not. Much worse things can be said for any previous version of Windows (except 3.1, but the limit of 3.1 power back then for me was Solitaire, Minesweeper, Notepad and the exit button back to DOS) Also I dare say you and I are most likely power users who stress things to the limit (all these CP browser windows open bring my pc to a crawl ;) ). regards, Paul Watson Cape Town, South Africa e: paulmwatson@email.com w: vergen.org
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I don't know man!! I didn't do it on purpose! It just crashed while debugging my app with VS6SP5. Also had 5 or 6 IE6 windows open, Outlook, Winamp, Adobe Illustrator, Flash5, and Word, while burning a CD. Ya know, the usual stuff. Damn windoze just cant hack it. When they gonna come out with a real OS?!?!?:cool: Josh josh@that-guy.net
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FWIW I have had no trouble with W2K until a week or so ago - brand new install, everything fine, all of a sudden I cannot open IE unless it's done through a link in Outlook. When I close VC it ALWAYS crashes. Playing MPEG's causes them to stutter and be unwatchable. I have no idea what I did, but repair W2000 did not fix it and I can't be bothered with a reinstall, so I am just getting used to it for now. Christian As I learn the innermost secrets of the around me, they reward me in many ways to keep quiet. Men with pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought Jewellery.
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FWIW I have had no trouble with W2K until a week or so ago - brand new install, everything fine, all of a sudden I cannot open IE unless it's done through a link in Outlook. When I close VC it ALWAYS crashes. Playing MPEG's causes them to stutter and be unwatchable. I have no idea what I did, but repair W2000 did not fix it and I can't be bothered with a reinstall, so I am just getting used to it for now. Christian As I learn the innermost secrets of the around me, they reward me in many ways to keep quiet. Men with pierced ears are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought Jewellery.
It's part of Wild Bill's plan to force you to upgrade to XP. Josh josh@that-guy.net
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It's part of Wild Bill's plan to force you to upgrade to XP. Josh josh@that-guy.net
This is probably to late but I wanted to ask this any way I had trouble on a 98 box, and I keep a list in a notepad file of recent items I have done and when I saw winamp, it came on a CD I got I uninstalled it and no more problems And I was listing to CD’s while on the net When I noticed the trouble Has any body had any issues with strange behavior and winamp? P.s. if windows sucks so much quite using it PAUL CURRY
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I've got win2k sp2. My system crashed. After rebooting I could log in and my background appeared but the rest of the desktop failed to load(no taskbar, toolbars, rt-click menu). I can run apps through the task manager and my network works, just no desktop. I've tried all sorts of suggestions from the microsoft support forums, none of which work. Anyone know how to fix this? If I have to reinstall windoze will all my apps be ok? Thanks Josh josh@that-guy.net
It is actually possible to replace the standard shell Windows uses. Pre-4.0 versions used progman.exe, since 4.0-versions it is explorer.exe Check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and here the Value "Shell" On my W2K system, it says "explorer.exe" Good luck anyway
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It's part of Wild Bill's plan to force you to upgrade to XP. Josh josh@that-guy.net
Heh, keeping my fingers crossed. So far I have been lucky. About a month ago I uninstalled a lot of programs from my w2k system and one of them totally screwed stuff up. Luckally I was able to fix it, but DAMN.... Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.
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Yeah, fortunately I've got Partition Magic and have most of my stuff safe on separate partitions. And of course it makes it easy to make room for linux. I've got Slackware running nicely on my machine and I've never had to reinstall it. I'd highly recommend it if you go for linux. Anyways, I'm off to configure windoze for the zillionth time. Josh josh@that-guy.net
Backing up your disk and other good practices is more important than which kind of OS you are using. I've lost count of how many LINUX, Windows, BEOS, FreeBSD, and so on I've been told "Oh my God, I need to reinstall everything" just because the HD died. Anyways, I have Win2K since its market debut and had WindowsNT running for years and never did a reinstall. Furor fit laesa saepius patientia