Ok this is driving me nuts. Every time I want to right-click an icon on my desktop, like when I want to right-click my recycle bin so I can empty it, the icons and my desktop all disappear as if the whole screen is refreshing. After about five seconds they all come back, but the right-click menu that SHOULD hsve appeared, did not. During all this my wallpaper stays intact too, but like I said the rest of the desktop just goes blank then returns. It seems the ONLY icon on my desktop that I can successfully right-click to bring up a right-click sub-menu is my Internet Explorer icon. Can someone please tell me what could be wrong? I've run antivirus and adaware like a million times and they are both coming up with nothing. Help would be MOST appreciated, thanks!!

robsamsonthesecond, See Response Number 1 in the thread at the link below. http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/... Tufenuf

thanks Tufenuf but it doesn't seem that doing this has helped, still getting the same problem, thanks though :)

Have you tried a System Restore to the closest date prior to when this problem began? Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore. Tufenuf

That I did, and it will not let me I get the stock "your system was not restored, no changes have occurred" mesage. Oh and btw, my symptom wasn't in the list on your first suggestion so maybe that's why it didn't work lol. They had "right-click and slow response" and "right-click and no response" but no right-click and icons and taskbar disappear. Thanks for all your help so far tufenuf.

robsamsonthesecond, It wouldn't hurt to try the following: Start your computer in SAFE mode then restart it in Normal mode. This will rebuild the iconcache.db file. How to Start Windows in Safe Mode http://www.pchell.com/support/safem... If the Safe mode/restart in Normal mode doesn't correct the problem your max iconcache may need to be increased. Go to the link below and scroll down to line 166 right colum and download the "Add Icon Cache Size to Folder Options/View" .reg file. Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it and answer yes to the import prompt. This will give you 4 icon cache choices under the View tab in Folder Options. You can experiment with the choices starting with the smallest first. See if this corrects your problem. Add Icon Cache Size to Folder Options/View. http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_... Tufenuf

Just tried both of those methods to no avail tufenuf, but again thank u so much for ur suggestions :).