Hi - this is my first post to any online help forum, so please bear with me! In fact, I'm not sure how best to describe this problem - but basically when WinXP boots up, all I get is my desktop picture and nothing else!?!
OK: Some quick facts first: I've been running WinXP Home Edition on my pc for nearly a year now, with no major hiccups, until today.
What happened is this: I've been sharing one monitor between 2 pcs, and booted up my WinXP pc before realising the monitor was plugged into my other pc, so, I had to hard-boot it it to shut it down. Then I plugged in my monitor & restarted.
WinXP started ok, but all I get now is my desktop picture & nothing else!!! No taskbars or icons - only my wallpaper pic. When I right-click, I get the drop-down menu, with Arrange Icons By, etc. I click on 'Show Desktop Icons' but nothing happens. The weird thing is, I can create shortcuts to all my folders, etc, but just can't get inside them. So everything is still there, it's just I can't access it! It's like a "fake" duplicate desktop has been placed on top of my original one..??? Some programs still work, such as Musicmatch jukebox, but it opens up without showing up onscreen (I only know it's running because the music is playing) !!!
Arrrrgnagargsfsggdhagasdgyasdgaksdggdnnnnnnndndn etc
<wipes away froth> *sigh* Anyway, I've used Windows 98 long enough to be more than aware of the weird, wooly & wilful ways of Windows, & have generally been able to troubleshoot a lot of problems on my own over the years, but this one really has me beat! I've rebooted & rebooted, hoping perhaps it'll sort itself out, but nada...
I really want to avoid reinstalling WinXP, as I had to do that half a year ago & frankly I'd rather have extensive root canal work done by Lawrence Olivier with a rusty drill & no anaesthetic...but....
So I really hope & pray some dear souls here can help..!
Thanks!
))