Help! "Start" button in Windows XP gone! Desktop icons have mysterious glow!

[jdm]

Hi, Sorry for this sort of post. I'm running XP Pro and just a while ago I went to do a weekly defrag under System Tools and my machine suddenly rebooted and then upon rebooting I was prompted for a User ID and Password!!!

This has never happened before. When my desktop finally appears, the taskbar is a gray color with no icons on the taskbar. However, if I hover my mouse around near the bottom left corner of the screen, it's clear that the programs are there and that they work.

All the icons on my desktop are surrounded by a strange glow / other-worldy outline!!!!!

I have no start button otherwise I would try to do a system restore.

If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful for your reply. Many thanks.

I know someone will say to just buy a Mac, but right now I have Windows!!! :)

I just want to get back to where I was an hour ago, if that's possible.

Thank you for reading this post.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is a repair mode available using the XP product disk.... as an option if some of the other suggestions do not work.

[MikefromOhio]

IF you are running XP, it is already NTFS.

What you need to do is reinstall XP. Backup your data when it asks (It should) and reinstall XP.

[Darksheare]

Straneg glow, otherworldly outline?
OOps, that's just me.
Sorry.

[ScottM1968]

No, I believe you are wrong. You can have a FAT32 drive under XP. You can also format an original FAT floppy but without boot files.

[ScottM1968]

For information on FAT32 formating under Windows XP, visit this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_cycz.asp

[ScottM1968]

A good anti-virus program, a firewall, an anti-spyware program that catches things in real-time, all the latest patches, and choosing a non-Active-X enabled browser such as Firefox, Mozilla, or Opera.

[MikefromOhio]

you can, but I am pretty sure he is in NTFS.....

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I had a problem when I re installed Windows XP on my PC. My resolution was set WAY TO LOW , and the color depth was set to low also ( my monitor would not even come up, or show anything ) so ? what did I do ? I have a very old IBM PC monitor I got from my mom, it's a 1992 monitor, can take a low resolution of ( just guessing 600 x 250 ) or even lower.
I plugged it up to my Newer PC , the screen had multiple ( how can I say here ? like a old ( very old TV set back in the 1960s 50s , when the TV would go haywire ) you see 4 or 5 desktops on the screen, and the Vertical and Horizontal was out of wack.
I did managed to see the desktop, and I right clicked the mouse on the desktop, and went to control panel, and went to the icon for ( DISPLAY ) then went to advanced settings, and managed to re set my resolution, and color depth.
Sometimes, if I set my resolution wrong, somethings on my desktop would not look right , or disappear. Who said those old monitors are no good ? the one I have got me out of a mess when I re installed Windows XP.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Try going to ( if you can ) to Programs ( before the START botton was gone, you would get to the PROGRAMS TAB this way ).
Then, go to ACCESSORIES ,, then, the next window that opens, you should see ( SYSTEM TOOLS ).
Click SYSTEM TOOLS, and a window should open up, and at the bottom, you should see ( SYSTEM RESTORE ).
If you can't do these,, can you still ( Right Click your mouse ? on the desktop ? ) and go to PROPERTIES after you right click your mouse button ? if you can, then, go to SETTINGS to see if your resolution & color depth is set correctly.
if the resolution is not set correct, your desktop will look weird, and some of the icons will not show up.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK, malware would not seem to be the cause of the problem....

Anything wierd about the display...can you try it on another system?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We need an answer from JDM ...

[martin_fierro]

my cat turned my display 90 degrees by sitting on my keyboard.

Believe it or not, there's a prevention for that:

< |:)~

[jdm]

"you can, but I am pretty sure he is in NTFS....."

Yes, I'm in NTFS. Thank you everyone for your replies into the early morning hours.

When I ran CHKDISK, I received several lines of data saying CHKDISK was repairing/restoring orphaned files such as system.log. A lot of the files it was repairing had a .log extension.

I'm surprised I can even be online like this. I'm now looking into how to reinstall/repair Windows, or whether I should just reinstall Windows period.

In terms of data, I have no Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. documents that I need to keep. I have no MPEG, AVI, MP3 files, etc. that I need either. What I need to make sure that I don't lose are my bookmarks/links in IE and Mozilla. If I lose those then I'm screwed! I can't imagine having to go back and redo all of my bookmarks.

Thanks again for your help!

[MikefromOhio]

bookmarks are small...if the computer is recognizing the CD or the floppy drives, put it in there....I am guessing that since you are online you can see your bookmarks?

I would reinstall it from scratch since you dont have anything to save.

I see that a lot out here in my job...we end up reimaging the drive...

[Proud_texan]

"I can't imagine having to go back and redo all of my bookmarks."

If it comes down to it click file/export in IE and/or Mozilla and save 'em to floppy.

Also often overlooked are email archives and addresses. You may want to save those for later restore as well.

[jdm]

Mike, Thanks very much for your replies on this thread. I appreciate your suggestions.

When reinstalling Windows XP, isn't there a repair install option? Do you know how I get that option? I have a brand new, factory sealed copy of Windows XP HOME but I'm currently running Windows XP PRO. I can't find my original PRO disc, so am thinking of ripping the cellophane off of the HOME version and reinstalling Windows that way. I'm guessing it makes no sense to reinstall the HOME version over the current PRO version, though does it? If you were me, would you wait until you found your PRO disc?

Thanks so much again...


JDM

[jdm]

Wow, exporting my bookmarks to one simple htm file was easy using that "Import/Export" feature. Thanks a lot!!!! Very helpful!!!

[headsonpikes]

...when my cat turned my display 90 degrees...

I recall advising you to lay the monitor on its side and to get a dog.

Any luck?

[holymoly]

How do you protect yourself from the bad stuff on the internet?

Software:

Do not use Internet Explorer or Outlook/Outlook Express.

The Mozilla and Firefox browsers are free (open source). I haven't tested Firefox yet, but last I knew, the Mozilla installer included browser, Usenet & E-mail clients. You may choose to install any or all.

Opera has a shareware version of it's browser which displays ads; registering the browser removes the ads.

Lavasoft offers "Ad-Aware SE", a free (for home users) anti-spyware/adware program. "Spybot Search and Destroy" is another free anti-adware/spyware utility.

Antidote Superlite is a free, on-demand virus scanner. I (and others here at Free Republic) have used this scanner, and found that it can detect some virii/trojans missed by Norton AV.

Zonealarm is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (excluding governmental entities and educational institutions). If you have broadband, you need a good firewall.

Common sense:

NEVER open any unsolicited attachement sent to you in an e-mail. I.E. If you didn't ASK someone to send you a specific file, don't open it. Ever.

Read the EULA. When you install software, ALWAYS read the End User License Agreement. Some unscrupulous software manufacturers/vendors word their EULAs in such a way that, by clicking the "Agree" (or similar) button, the user grants "permission" for spyware/adware/malware to be installed on their system.

[Not A Snowbird]

I recall advising you to lay the monitor on its side and to get a dog.

That was one of the more classic responses I got on that thread! I did eventually fix it by going back to an earlier restore point. I never did figure out what combination of keys he sat on.

The perp, now banished to the cubbyhole above the keyboard: