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.

[Not A Snowbird]

LOL! See #40 for a picture of the "perp".

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If you can get to a C:\prompt by possibly using a 3 1/2" startup disk (you did make that system disk after buying the PC, right?)...you can run the following command to restore the registry:

scanreg /restore

Select one of the registry cabs that says "started" next to it and give it a shot.

[johnny7]

I have a MAC G4... never any problems... no viruses... nada. My brother has a PC and crashes at least once a year.

Rush Limbaugh swears by MAC's. Convert brother... convert!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that looks like a neat hangout for a contented cat!

[ScottM1968]

Not if he upgraded to XP from a prior version of Windows. Windows ME, 98, and 2000 all supported FAT32 as native formats.

[ScottM1968]

You can reinstall XP and it will find your programs and reinstall most of them automatically, assuming they are not missing critical files.

The .log files are not required for the computer to operate, but their loss can be indicative of greater problems (although .log files are always left open and are therefore the most likely hurt when anything is lost).

I'm sorry you are having this sort of problem.

Hard drives use a several MB buffer to operate. Any set of files in the buffer that weren't written to the drive (due to a large data move) are lost when the power goes off or a bug hits. This buffer can be turned off to greatly minimize damage by going into your System icon in Control Panel and unchecking the appropriate selection on the hard drive.

[jdm]

Thanks a lot, Scott. I'll be reinstalling Windows later tonight. I appreciate your help, just like everyone else here who posted. Thank you everyone.

[MikefromOhio]

I wouldnt personally, but if you cant find your PRO disc, you got to do something right?

There is a repair installation option, but you need the disc to do it.

No problem...part of the job...

[Max Combined]

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