Display of menu/toolbar/taskbar issue and error

[VincentM]

At the moment I'm sitting at my in-law's computer running XP. At launch everything goes as normal, they do not use multiple users, so it launches straight into XP.

Except...

The desktop background is in view and the mouse and that's it. No start, menu's, icons, desktop functionalit in any way. The only way I can launch applications is through the task manager and using the launch function (hence why I'm able to post here).

The simplicit of functions, the windows key, does nothing. At the moment only task manager launching capability is available.

Any ideas?

I rushed down here to be able to get QuickBooks to launch so my father-in-law can get some of his work done for his business. I have it launched and running, seems to work fine, in fact everything seems to work fine... save for the fact that I can't launch a single application the right way and there is no desktop functionality, just a blanks screen with a desktop background and the mouse cursor.

Thanks in advance!

~Vincent

[Force Flow]

Have you run spyware and virus scans?

Usually that's the first thing I do when something goes amuck with windows.

If that doesn't help, then try a system restore to a point before when the issue started. If you don't have a restore point, you might need to run a windows repair (which runs from booting from the Windows CD)

[EzyStvy]

The only way I can launch applications is through the task manager and using the launch function

Try running Explorer.exe

[Vinny]

Funny you mention that, I just upgraded their spyware/antivirus and ran a scan and found some trojans.

I'll run new scans and run explorer.exe tomorrow when I go over. Hopefully that helps. Thanks for the suggestions!