I recently started having problems with my windows startup. It appears that Windows will boot up, but when it's done there is only a blank desktop. There's no start menu, explorer or anything running. I hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to view open programs and there's nothing there. When windows boots up I can see for a very brief split second the task bar, but it disappears and all I'm left with is a blank desktop. I tried to boot will an old registry but that didn't work. About 1 and 1/2 weeks ago I found a couple trojans on PC but removed them. I fear that they may have put a virus on pc that kills all the programs at startup (maybe not but it seems like that's what's happening). I tried to poke around in dos but I don't know how to work in dos that well. How can I view startup menu in dos (I tried to run msconfig, but that can't be run from dos). Right now my home pc is dead in the water unless someone can help me. Thank you for any suggestions on what I may do.

Hi Joeblow, hi everyone, Can you start the computer in Safe-Mode? Begin tapping on the F8 key as soon as you start the computer until you receive the boot menu. Select Safe-Mode and post back with the results. Mesich

Yeah I tried that already but unfortunately it has the same problem in safe mode. I tried the step-by-step bootup as well and couldn't get it to work. Thanks for the suggestion. Any other ideas? I guess as a last resort I can always do the dreaded f-disk, but I'd like to avoid that like the plague if there's another alternative. Thanks.

When did the Startup problem start? Mesich

The same thing happened to my brothers computer ( WinME). It turned out that he had gotten infected with the "bugbear" virus. I don't know if the same thing happened to you, but it is a thought. He had to have professional help to reinstall his os.

Some anti-virus programs will create emergency rescue floppies. Maybe you could do that on another system and see if the floppies will rescue the broken system.

Hey thanks everyone for your suggestions. I currently don't have any rescue disks. I did run a few scans on norton antivirus and another antivirus program called Sophos. Norton never caught the trojans I had and Sophos did. Just curious is there a way to look and edit the startup menu in DOS kinda like you can in msconfig? I wonder if I can bypass they normal standard startup procedures then maybe I can get into windows to fix the problem??? Also, a co-worker suggested that I look at the win.ini file to see if anything bad in there. I'll try that when I get home from work. Thanks again.