Explorer is freaked out

[NirVana]

i can get to the log in screen fine but after that nothing works but the task manager but some how idk i got like 3 explorers going and killed 2 and windows loaded the rest of the way.but now i can but i got IE opened and thats about it no icon's no start menu .....

[Miz]

"but now i can" what? Which explorer has three copies running? Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer?

[HalOfBorg]

If you DON'T have explorer.exe running, just open TASKMANAGER and go:

File - New Task(Run) and type 'explorer' and hit enter.

If it IS running, close it first, then re-start it. You CAN do this with XP, unlike earlier versions. Re-reads the registry.