HELP! - No icons or taskbar on WinXP startup

[user123]

Hope someone can help. For reasons beyond me, my desktop icons and taskbar do not load or display when the computer finishes the boot-up process. The time/clock display does not load either.

The mouse pointed WILL move around however you cannot right-click on the desktop, it simply does not work. The Windows Task Manager does NOT show explorer.exe running.

I went to "New Task" --->explorer.exe and was able to get into contol panel, etc this way.

I am online and posting this message from my problem machine as a matter of fact.

I am running current Anti-Virus. A spyware and antivirus scan showed nothing. I also run ZoneAlarm and have no reason to believe anything happened there.

When I go to "Desktop" via windows explorer, all my icons are there, and clicking on each icon correctly loads the resspective program.

My files and other programs all appear to be intact and "undamaged."

Any help is appreciated....THANKS

[Panama Red]

Have you tried using a Restore Point prior to the problem?\

edit: Here's what MS has to say about it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318027/en-us