What could cause all desktop icons and taskbar to disappear

[ericboo]

A friend's called me and asked me that question. Everything on her computer was fine the day before. I am not local to her, so it is not possible for me to try and diafonse what might be wrong. She only has dialup and may possibly have let her Antivirus software subscription expire.

Are clues? Are there any bootable disks online to scan for viruses?

 

[Platypus]

Explorer probably crashed, respawn it.

 

[ericboo]

Respawn how? Rebooting did nothing.

 

[Platypus]

Originally posted by: ericboo
Respawn how? Rebooting did nothing.

Ah, if a reboot didn't fix it then it's probably something else.

For grins and giggles, ctrl+alt+delete -> task manager -> applications tab -> new task... -> explorer.exe

 

[ericboo]

Will give it a shot. I hate diagnosing stuff over the phone.

 

[jamesbond007]

I once came across this. The user had some kind of spyware/virus. The machine worked fine and was able to bring back the taskbar and icons in safemode, but nothing worked in Normal mode. I ended up reformatting the entire drive (did a full format, not quick) and restoring the OS from the OEM DVD.

It would seem she has the same issue...though it's possible something in her startup programs could be affecting it. Boot her into safemode and have her check out the startup programs. (MSCONFIG > Startup tab)

Good luck!

 

[skyking]

sounds like this guy's problem too.

 

[daveshel]

Could be that she accidentally dragged the separator bars to a position that hides the icons. I have done this but cannot quite explain the fix. I just kept dragging the bars around until it was fixed.