I recently had someone ask me about a problem they have been having with their laptop which has ME loaded onto it. When they load the OS the desktop wallpaper and cursor appears/loads, but not the icons or taskbar and menu. They only have the one profile that loads without a password so they are unable to load another profile. I'm guessing that the profile 'All Users' is corrupt, but not certain. I advised that they should re-install the OS as i haven't a clue how to fix this. Any suggestions welcome (before they reinstall!). Thanks - H.I.T -

HIT, SWAG, what happen if they boot into safe mode? There? What if they attempt to repair IE from there? No mouse makes things REALLY difficult. If the mouse were there, 'view' would present a 'show taskbars' option to check. HTH. Ed in Texas.

If they boot into 'safe mode' then the same thing happens! They have the wallpaper and a pointer which can be moved but not used to access any context menu's. No taskbar, no icon...nothing. Sometimes they are unable to load into safe mode at all. Thanks - H.I.T -

HIT, Things to try, 1.) Boot with a startup disk, and try rolling back the registry to an earlier time. MSKB 221512 2.) Boot with a startup disk, modify some files and try/do a system restore. MSKB 279736 Did they install/download(that they admitt)/update/change anything just prior to problem? Could even try a fix of reg...More things and ways, but give that a try. Good luck S.T.A.R.

Cheers S.T.A.R but they haven't got a boot disk, recovery disk or os disc. All they have is the laptop. They can't even get a copy of a boot disk from me (too far away) but they will probably be able to get hold of an ME disc soon. But you can't boot off of an ME disk can you? Thanks - H.I.T -

Hello HIT, "Any suggestions welcome (before they reinstall!)." That would really make that difficult. ;-) "But you can't boot off of an ME disk can you?" That question is answered as 'maybe'. It depends on what it is and who made it. MS, manufacturer, ect. If it does boot with this disk (MS), then you can choose not to install. Then change the directory and use it as a full EBD and much more. If that comes into play can write it all out for you. But will wait to see if needed, ok. Does this laptop have a floppy drive? If it does, they can get/download one at bootdisk.com That's if they have access to the internet by some other means. Also, if they have another computer with ME, 98 they could make one with it. You're welcome and good luck S.T.A.R. p.s. What is displayed as running if they Ctrl+Alt+Del Nothing or something not responding Ah hold off on that for now, ok. Unless it's already known