Desktop toolbar is GONE!

[gtbrown77]

Hey, I'm trying to help a friend out with his computer....he's been having all sorts of trouble. Anyway, first things I did were run spybot and adaware. After having run those two programs and having them fix the 500+ probs it found, now the desktop toolbar (you know, the one with the start menu) doesn't appear, and I don't know how to fix that. Any suggestions?

Thanx

[HyperTF]

are you sure it isn't just hidden? mouse down to the very bottom of the screen. if your mouse pointer turns into an up and down arrow hold down the left mouse button and drag it back up... if that doesn't work, report back... I have found this happen so many times to people asking the same thing...

oh, and I dont mean to offend if you already knew to do this... many don't....

if you do get it back this way, right click on the taskbar and lock it. Then it wont go anywhere (assuming you have XP) ;)

[gtbrown77]

Nope, that's not it.

[HyperTF]

The registry might be corrupted now... hold on... checking my notes... did you reboot?

What happens when you press the Windows key on the keyboard? or press CTRL + ESC... then look in Settings, Taskbar and Start Menu... see what auto-hide is set to and check it is unlocked.

Is this XP?

[gtbrown77]

I have rebooted

Nothing happens when I hit the Windows button or Ctrl+Esc

Checking in the Control Panel under start menu and taskbar....autohide is unchecked

Yes, this is XP Home

[HyperTF]

I have not tried this myself but you could give it a go (at your own risk)

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

Or try starting in safe mode... or dare I say it a re-install... but it may not be the resort to take atm.

[HyperTF]

Well it is 2am here in Melbourne Aust, so I am off to bed... Please let us know how it went. Cheers

[gtbrown77]

Okay, new problem here....I can't seem to do anything on the desktop other than add new icons. I can't seem to move the icons around, move the taskbar into sight, and my background picture is gone. Any help?

Thanx

[HyperTF]

Put your XP CD in an do a repair Install... don't mess around any more with it, something is corrupted, possibly the registry... did you get the task bar back?

If you could get to the run menu I would have said type sfc /scannow to scan the drive... but a repair install might be wiser right now IMO

[gtbrown77]

actually, i somehow got the taskbar back...it doesn't seem to be working correctly, but it is back.

I did try the sfc/scannow...but nothing happened...I'm assuming there's probably more I'm supposed to type into the run box?

[HyperTF]

actually, i somehow got the taskbar back...it doesn't seem to be working correctly, but it is back.
Well with the suggestions I made in the other thread... what did you do prior to it coming back?

Try the repair install from XP CD.