no task bar, no icons on desktop, safe mode doesn't work, etc

I am a few hours away from my sister and trying to get her computer working
without driving there to help her. Her OS is xp. She booted up her machine
(several times with me on the phone) and it starts normally with the windows
log on but after logging in, no icons on desktop or the task bar display.
Only her desktop pic displays. We have tried F8 to boot the machine in safe
mode. That didn't work. It doesn't recognize F8 and just continues the normal
process of booting up. After logging on, we use ctl+alt+del and we have gone
to task mgr>>file>>new task>>explore.exe. She gets an error that she can't
open that file. We were able to get to the command line prompt thru
ctl+alt+del>>task mgr>>file>>new task and see the files on her desktope. We
have tried ctl+alt+del>>task mgr>>file>>new task>>launch system restore on
the general tab and she gets the error that she doesn't have permission. Does
anyone have any other suggestions that we can try? Or has anyone had this
happen and how did you resolve it?

Sunshine wrote:
> I am a few hours away from my sister and trying to get her computer
> working
> without driving there to help her. Her OS is xp. She booted up her machine
> (several times with me on the phone) and it starts normally with the
> windows
> log on but after logging in, no icons on desktop or the task bar display.
> Only her desktop pic displays. We have tried F8 to boot the machine in
> safe
> mode. That didn't work. It doesn't recognize F8 and just continues the
> normal
> process of booting up. After logging on, we use ctl+alt+del and we have
> gone
> to task mgr>>file>>new task>>explore.exe. She gets an error that she can't
> open that file. We were able to get to the command line prompt thru
> ctl+alt+del>>task mgr>>file>>new task and see the files on her desktope.
> We
> have tried ctl+alt+del>>task mgr>>file>>new task>>launch system restore on
> the general tab and she gets the error that she doesn't have permission.
> Does
> anyone have any other suggestions that we can try? Or has anyone had this
> happen and how did you resolve it?

Sounds like she got infested with something.

Likely she is missing the timing on the safe mode boot. Try again. The
instructions I give for those wanting to get into Safe Mode are:

1) Unhook everything from your computer (external) excluding:
- Power (you'll need that.)
- Monitor (otherwise you'll be flying blind.)
- Keyboard and Mouse (Windows is a GUI-based OS - you need these to
operate it efficiently.)

Everything else (printer, network cable, telephone line, scanner, external
drives, cameras, even loose cables) should be disconnected.

2) Power off the computer.

3) Power on the computer and immediately after doing so, start tapping (once
per second) the "F8" key on your keyboard.

4) You should reach a screen where you can select a way to boot - there you
will choose "Safe Mode".


Now - if that fails - you might have her go through the Task Manager
processes list with you and "End Process Tree" on anything _you_ do a quick
google on and either cannot find anything about or is of no use in this
situation. As soon as you have gone through the entire list - then try to
run the following from the Task Manager: msconfig

If it loads - under "General", select "Diagnostic Startup", click ok and
reboot. That should get you into 'safe mode'.


Once there - you should have her run the msconfig again and change it to
normal startup, click APPLY (not OK) and then choose the "Startup" tab and
choose to "disable all" and click OK and reboot in normal mode. Hoefully
you can get into normal mode this time and then you can scan with
MalwareBytes and SuperAntiSpyware to start. Or... If you think this is
beyond what she can do - have her download TeamViewerQS and run it and you
get the full version (free) and install it and you use the 9-digit number
she gives you and the 4-digit passcode she gives you to connect to her
remotely and start doing the work for her. ;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html