Hey all... long time no post. I'm having an odd problem with my system. I was using it like normal, then it suddenly slowed down and was acting really sluggish, so I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and ended explorer.exe and several other tasks that were taking up alot of space. I then restarted. When I restarted, Windows booted up to the login screen and I was able to login, then it just displayed my background with the mouse cursor. Nothing else. I pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL and began explorer.exe - it just opened an Explorer window, not the Start Menu, nothing... I can use the Internet, open any program, but I'm stuck without a taskbar, icons, and I have to do a CTRL+ALT+DEL (Task Manager) every time I want to run a program... I tried a System Restore, restarting, but to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks. -Andy PS - I have MS Antispyware, Symantec Anti-virus, so I know it's probably not spyware-related, but I'll do a check just in case.

Go here http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and scroll down to line 195 right hand column and download the file. Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it and answer yes to the import prompt.

I should have said make a backup of the registry first, just in case things go wrong. Good luck.

BurrWalnut: I tried your suggestion - didn't work. More suggestions? =/ -Andrew

You could try a repair of Internet Explorer which shares modules with Explorer :- Start, Run and type “sfc /scannow” (not the quotes but the space) and have your WinXP CD ready to put in the drive, should it be wanted. If the main Windows set-up screen appears and covers the progress bar, just close it. SFC will exit with no closing dialogue. To see which files. if any, were replaced look in Event Viewer. If SFC doesn’t work, the RPC locator service needs to be started in Start, All Programs, Administrative Tools, Services.