My Entire Home Screen Has Disappeared!

I don't know what brought this on, but yesterday I clicked on my music folder and a window popped up saying that an error had occurred and windows had to shut down. Now my entire screen is just black when I start my computer up. There is no wallpaper, icons, taskbar, nothing! My antivirus window keeps popping up in the bottom corner letting me know that things have been blocked or destroyed. Through "Ctrl, Alt, Del" I can pull up my taskmanager and then I can choose to open a new task and get on the internet which works great. My computer is still responsive and quick, I just want my desktop items back! Any ideas?

 

Hi kvan. Welcome to CHF.

First,  try Safe Mode, and see if your Screen returns.

Also find line 195 here, and follow the instructions,at Kelly's  Korner.

http://www.kellys-ko...m/xp_tweaks.htm

Try these first, and post the outcome.  

 

Thank you so much for your quick reply! Unfortunately neither of these options seemed to work for me. Starting in Safe Mode still gives me a blank screen and when I tried to follow the instructions on the Kelly's Korner page I got a message that said "The module "MSHTML.DLL" was loaded but the entry-point DLLRegisterServer was not found. Make sure that "MSHTML.DLL" is valid DLL or OCX file and then try again."

I am self-admittedly a computer idiot so I don't even know what that jargon means. Any other thoughts?

 

I am concerned that you may be infected with malware. I am going to give you one more thing to try and if that does not work we will need to have a look at that.

Since you can get into your task manager, do so and click on the processes tab. Look for explorer.exe and and if you find it disable it. Restart your computer and if your desktop etc. does not show up go back to the task manager, select a new task and retype explorer.exe I am guessing this will not work for you but it may.

Once you get to the task manager can you do anything besides open your browser and get on the internet?

 

hmmm... I don't seem to have any processes called explorer.exe. I am not able to access anything other than my browser but that may be just because I don't know the exact words to type into that search box. i am so sorry that i am such an idiot.

 

Go back to the task manager and click on "File" at the very top. Select nes task and when a box opens type explorer.exe
Thee us what, if anything, happens.

Have you tried tapping on F8 when you are booting? It should take you to a black options page where you can select safe mode.

 

It says windows cannot find nes. I have tried opening it in safe mode and I still just had a black screen. :S

 

It cannot find explorer.exe either

 

Hi,

I don't know how literally you are following suggestions.

I noticed a typo. It is " n e w task (Run...) that you click on after clicking on " File ".

Then the window " Create new task " opens. Type " explorer.exe " in the box then click " Ok ".

 

It says it cannot find explorer.exe

 

You said you were still able to access the internet.

What Anti-virus program are you using ? Does it include Anti-spy ware also ?

 

Yes, i am still able to access the internet via task manager. I have Norton. I'm not 100% on the spyware and now I can't even click on my little taskbar button that would let me look for you, but I am almost certain that I do have spyware.

 

Are you able to update and run a full scan ?

 

Also, just to clarify can you let us know the source of the music (thats in your music file) that caused this...

 

I just finished an update and complete scan and also did confirm that my antispyware is on. The scan only detected and resolved 6 threats and none of them required attention. My music files come from mostly CDs and Amazon. I also have some from Limewire but they are all old (several months at least) so I don't feel like they caused this problem. Is there a way that I can just go through and delete everything on my computer that may have inadvertently been downloaded and get a clean slate? I just don't want to lose my personal files if there is something working through my computer.

 

You say six threats were detected ? How is it that they do not require attention ?

On the other question. You could try a system restore to a date/time before this problem arose.

 

The Norton scan resolved them on it's own. They did not require attention from me. Could you tell me how to do a system restore?!

 

What Operating system / service pack are you running ?

 

Vista

 

SP1 or SP2 ?