I have no desktop icons and when I try to start internet explorer I get a message saying IEXPLORE.EXE Application error Appliction failed to initialize properly (0xc0000022)

Some history would be useful - ie, when did this start happening, did you add/remove any hardware/software prior to this, any other problems leading up to this? If you have a 2k install disk you could try a repair reinstall:- http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... You'd need to reapply service pack & windows updates, ie6 if you use it or if you can you could use nlite to create an install disk with these or some of them already included (slipstreamed in). Repair reinstall is a 'catchall' approach to fixing (often works - without more info I can't advise further)

This started a couple of weeks ago -- I truned on and started up my PC and had no desktop but did have the iexplore error message when I tried to get on the internet - I hadn't installed anything new. Working through Windows Task Manager-New task I can get to almost all my software, I ran virus scans and found nothing - my IE is version 6, I reinstalled it (using firefox) -- no help. I went back to prior backups - as far as I had which was 3-4 months and that didn't help (made no difference). I do have the install W2k disk - but am concerned that if I use it I will have to reinstall all my programs -- I am not a gamer, and have a lot of business and investing programs - most were downloaded from the internet over several years (none real recent). My W2k service packs are current. I do have W2k on another PC so I could transfer a file or files from my working PC to the desktop it that would help. Neither explore.exe nor iexplore.exe are listed under Task Manager Processes yet they are both listed on my working PC.

The reinstall seemed to work - still don't have IE working but I have my desktop back. I will try to reinstall IE. Thank you Very much

Well now I cannot uninstall IE. It looks like I have to uninstall Service Packs in order to uninstall IE, but service packs are not listed in my add remove programs folder -- any ideas on how to get IE to work? I tried reinstalling IE and it goes in a loop saying it did not repair or install -- try again. Any advice would be very much appreciated!