Got this problem with an WinXP machine. It boots up the background picture comes up then nothing. No Icons appear, no Start button or task bar, No clock or systray. What I can do it CTRL+ALT+DEL and bring up the task manager nothing is running. I can go into safe mode and low and behold the icons are there. In safe mode I have ran a virus check and adware also spyware, but when I reboot the same problem happens. How can I fix this (I tried the right click on desktop but nothing happened, no menu appeared).

Tried a System Restore from Safe Mode to a date before the problem?

alan, When you bring up Task Manager is there anything running under the Proccesses tab? Open Task Manager, click on File, click on New Task (Run...) then type in explorer.exe then click OK. Tufenuf

Did the task manager and typed in explorer and it worked, however when I reboot it goes back to the problem. Any ideas?

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP To help troubleshoot error messages or other issues when you cannot determine the cause of the issue, disable common startup programs, settings, and drivers to eliminate possible software conflicts when you start Microsoft Windows XP. This procedure is known as "clean booting." (Can be done by way of Windows Safe-Mode, logon as Administrator, but where it says RESTART, restart into normal Windows.) How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP and that one is a heavy duty article. Print the articles for reference.

click on new task under the task manager then type c:\windows,click ok.find explorer.exe(if the explorer.exe is still there thats a good relief),then in the new task again type regedit and goto hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\windows nt\current version\winlogon:then in the right table locate "Shell".Double click it and type Explorer.exe(make sure Explorer.exe is still in the windows system)after that...click ok.exit the registry and reboot:)