Disappearing Desktop

[stbnynke]

Yesterday I turned on my computer and after the normal buzzing and clicking, my wallpaper appeared but then instead of getting my desktop with the task bar and start menu etc. my "My Docs" folders opens. the only way I can launch programs is using task manager's new task. All programs seem to open and run as normal. I'm not sure but this may have happened after running the upgrade for "Counter Spy". has anyone run into this or have a fix?

[Dark Nova]

id use system restore. maybe you downloaded something not right for your pc.

[rspassey]

Try booting in safe mode and see if it happens there too.
You might have contracted a virus or something.

[stbnynke]

I have tried both of these suggestions with no change. It appears that the shell is not being loaded but I don't know where the load command is execuded during boot. I am running XP Pro. I suspect it may be a virus but I have scanned the system with the latest updates from both Norton AV & Couterspy. This also happens for all users including the administrator.

[sgtspector]

Did u mess with the uxtheme.dll file? If you attempted to install unsigned themes or use the uxtheme.dll patch you may have deleted or corrupted the file. If you did the start menu and taskbar wont show up. If you did, go to taskmanager and start new task and start windows explorer. Browse to c:\windows\system32 and see if the file uxtheme.dll is there. If not you need to get to a command prompt or "run" box and type "sfc /scannow" and have your xp disk handy. This will restore windows files that have been changed or deleted. The other option if it is missing is to get the file from a dl download website or another "known clean" computer and manually copy it over to your system32 folder. The best way is to use the sfc option. You can use system restore but if it is a virus or other malware your system restore files may be bad too.