Strange XP problem which occurred cleaning up a friends HP computer to get rid of adware. It boots up OK to the wallpaper but does not load any icons. There is also NO BAR or buttons along the bottom.. Just the picture and nothing else. THe Basic processes ARE running. Clt/Alt/Del gives the Task Manager Window.... 18 Processes running with System Idle Process taking 99% so its not stuck doing anything. "Users" shows one user (Owner). If I try to log off and log on as another user there is none on offer, so I come back to same point. Safe mode behaves exactly the same!!!! Have tried all the various safe mode boot options but makes no difference. I have Run MSCONFIG from the task manager and tried various minimalist configurations (unticking everything non essential). THe problem appeared to come about after first unticking adware and non essential items in MSCONFIG/startup and succesfully booting several times. Then I added in one or two items to do with an HP "all in one" printer and a USB me card reader(cant remember exact things) then suddenly this occurred. Seems like it is waiting for somethin to load...or the "Owner" user somhow has nothing configured or is locked out. The HP was not supplied with an XP CD. It has a dual partitioned HD wioth teh recovery data on the second partition. Not keen to start recovery actions until I have exhausted other options. Can someone please suggest something to try running from the command line or how to change users possibly. Thanks Ken

What happens when you click ctrl+Alt+Del select Task list, click new task, type explorer, then click ok? This works for me. I haven't found the source of the issue yet and mine doesn't happen every time I boot, but probably once a week

Scott, thankyou for your very prompt reply. It seems the obvious thing to try ....now that you point it out, and I am sure it WOULD have worked. However before looking here for a possible answer I did a non destructive recovery which fixed the problem. (That was after phoning HP support where the support person had not heard of this problem and could not offer any help apart from recovery.) Thanks again Kenmetz