Loss of Start Button, Loss of Icons, no taskbar

[BobL]

I am running Windows XP, home edition.

A few days ago, I downloaded and ran Adaware software on my computer and removed several "spyware" items from my computer. Maybe too many. I also have Norton Antivirus and it was setup to automatically download the latest virus definitions when I signed onto the internet.

My daughter was on the internet the other day using AOL and she said the computer froze up. She shut it down and since then, my computer boots up really slowly, and when I get to the desktop, I have no icons on the desktop, no start button and no taskbar (or whatever that thing is called at the bottom of the screen.)

I am able to access my programs using "Windows Task Manager" so my programs function and my data files appear to be intact. Pressing "Alt" "Ctrl" "Del" brings up the "Windows Task Manager".

My questions are:

1) Will performing a "system restore" resolve my problems?

2) How can I initiate a "system restore" since I don't have a "start" button? (Someone told me to push the Windows symbol key on my keyboard but, when I pushed it, nothing came up.)

3) My computer is a Compaq, so I guess restoring my computer to the factory defaults is an optiion, but I would apparently lose the programs I have installed, so I would prefer not to do that if there are any other options.

Here are the "processes" running when I go into the Windows Task Manager after I boot up:

wanmpsvc.exe System
nopdb.exe System
nprotect.exe System
navapsvc.exe System
ghosts~2.exe System
alg.exe Local Service
ccevtmgr.exe System
spoolsv.exe System
svchost.exe Local Service
svchost.exe Network Service
svchost.exe System
svchost.exe System
taskmgr.exe Owner
lsass.exe System
services.exe System
winlogon.exe System
csrss.exe System
smss.exe System
explorer.exe Owner
system System
system idle process System

Thanks for your assistance.

[Jamie]

You can run 'system restore' in 'safe mode'.

I am saying this as I also deleted files with Adaware and had the same problem. Nowadays I am a bit more careful.

Good Luck

[cdb252]

If "System Restore" from "Safe Mode" recommended by the previous reply doesn't work you may just need to do a complete reinstallation of XP Home. I installed Pro and for some reason I was missing the task bar, icons etc. I could access everything via ctrl alt del - task mgr. but I couldn't get anything going to correct the problem so I reinstalled and all was OK then.

Be careful removing spyware, try quarantine first in case it is needed to run certain programs.

Hope this helps.

cdb252

[Bwana]

I was having this same problem with an XP-Pro SP2 machine. It all started at boot up this morning. Neither the user nor any other account on the computer including the administrators account had any desktop functions. Just wallpaper and mouse curser. Ctl-alr-del did not even invoke task manager. After a few hours I traced the problem to PC-Cillin Internet Security 2004. After disabling and uninstalling it the system worked fine. I was able to reinstall PC-Cillin and after all the updates it is working great. I have 4 other clones of this workstation running the same software, with the same settings, but have had just this one occurrence. It is obvious from all the research I did on line that there can be many cause’s for this behavior. I hope this is of help to some one out there.

[akaxtian]

My mother in Florida is have similar problems were her XP Home Edition computer. She said she was surfing the internet with IE the other day when IE froze on her. She got the "program is not responding" error and tried to End Now without sucess. She ended up restarting the computer and after that she was able to get to the XP logon screen and no further. She tried again today and was able to get to the desktop but there was only the wallpaper... no icons, start menu. She used CTRL+ATL+DEL to get the Task Manager up and saw that the CPU Usage was maxed at 100% steady. I had her check to see whether explorer.exe was running and it was. I tried to see if she could run any other programs via the Task Manager, but the computer got hung up since the CPU usage was still maxed out. She was able to restart the computer in SAFE mode after a rather long wait as it loaded. So, that's were we stand at this point. Keep in mind I'm trying to help her over-the-phone from another state!

I'm interested in know more details on the possibility of Trend Mico's Internet Security 2004 being the culprit. That is what she's using as her anti-virus program, on my urging. I'm also currently using that program on my home computer without any issues.

Any insight would be appreciated on this. Thanks!

[akaxtian]

Problem solved!

I came across some information on the Trend Mico website about a problem with one of their virus pattern updates that causes high CPU utilization. I talked my mom through the process of deleting the problem file and voila... fixed!

So, here's a link if you are having this same problem...

PC-cillin Internet Security High CPU Utilization Problem