Hi, On boot up, WinXP starts normally, and I get the blue mainframe to select the user. When I select the user, personal settings are loaded, but that's it: shortcuts, taskbar, office-bar are not visible! Only the desktop image is present. Windows-key or keyboard shortcuts have no effect. I have 8 users defined, and the problem is the same on each of them. This problem came suddenly, not while working on the web or while installing a program. Could a virus be the problem? Can I solve it without cleaning up? If not, any suggestion to retrieve all data? Thanks for helping me.

Try system restore...if that doesn't work then try creating a new user through control panel.

I can't access the control panel, because there is no taskbar, nor a Start-button, nor any icons or shortcuts on desktop. So, how can I create a new user??