Having issues, computer, Windows 98 ... unsure of which edition/version, don't know how to retrieve this from DOS ... computer will boot up, desktop appears, taskbar flashes, no icons. In DOS, can not get to A:(floppy) or D:(CD). Trying to go to D:, i'm told invalid drive, A: i get the abort, retry, fail, ignore message, after aborting, says "drive is no longer valid." Clicking left or right on the desktop "sometimes" will give me a kernel32.dll page default error. sometimes it doesn't. Hitting Alt+ctrl+del brings up the task manger, with nothing in it. Safe mode does the same. i'm unsure of what to do here ... any help would be greatly appreciated.

Try rolling back your registry to an earlier date.

Have you tried pressing the windows logo key on your keyboard to see if task bar will pop up then? It is located on your keyboard next to the space bar. Post back and let us know.

Never mind, about that. Finally understand what you are saying. You have a taskbar but no buttons or icons. Can you boot the computer up with a win 98 startup disk, and if so does the computer post and eventually get you to the a:> prompt?

No, no, she means exactly what she says. We're having the same problem. All you see on the desktop IS the desktop - no icons, no taskbar, no Start button, no clock...The Windows key doesn't bring up the Start menu, the Close Program window (from CTRL-ALT-DEL) doesn't show any active programs, not even Systray or Explorer. I can't try rolling back the registry as ours is a new installation of Win 98, but any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Read this thread. Start at response 16 and go from there. Good luck. http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/31710.html

Sorry, i did a search and didn't come up with that thread, but trishleen is right, we both have the same problem ... thanks for the help, we'll try and see what happens.