All Desktop Icons Disappeared?

[Lanypoo]

Hi all. I posted last week about not being able to get into windows. It was asking me for the code that comes with the CD. Needless to say, that was long gone. I did some digging and someone said I can use any code. I found several codes, and entered one, and I thought I was in.

Sadly, my computer came up totally blank. It "chimes" like windows is opening, my old background is still in the background, but none of the desktop icons come up. Does anyone know how I can fix this? Will bringing up my registry help? Again, I do NOT have disks for Windows 98.

 

[MiggyD]

1) does your taskbar still showup?

2) did you try shuting off Active Desktop?

3) did you try right-clicking on the desktop &
using "refresh" or "arange icons > by name"?

let us know the results (if any)
--MiggyD

--> It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's an OS update patch! Ahh!! <--

 

[Lanypoo]

Hi there. Nothing comes up. There is no taskbar. There is not anything on my screen once windows supposedly comes up. The only thing I can get is my task manager, which has no tasks running.

 

[timroop]

Can you boot into "Safe Mode"?

If you can get into safe mode then a driver or program that is loading on boot is causing the system to lockup or otherwise not complete the OS load.

If you can get to safe mode next try a Logged boot and look at the bootlog to determine the last item to load.

Keep us informed.



Tim Roop
"If you can do something about it, why waste time getting upset? If you can't do anything about it, why bother getting upset on top of it? -Shantideva

 

[Lanypoo]

Hi there. Tried safe mode last night, and that didn't even work. It looks the same as normal mode - no icons or anything. I forgot, there was an error message pertaining to "Explorer". I had a friend look at it last night, and she couldn't even figure it out. It also wouldn't let her get into DOS. I know this is annoying, but I appreciate your help all. If you have any ideas, let me know. I'll ask her to do a Boot Log. She's enlisting help of work friends now, but still want ideas. Cheers!

 

[timroop]

When you say it won't let you into DOS do you mean you can't run a DOS window or that you cannot boot to the Command Prompt?

I would say that you are at a point that a reload of windows is necessary. I really don't see anyway around it.

You might get away with running the Setup from the \windows\Options\Cabs folder if it is there. Some OEM computers are scripted and it may recognize your current Key code as valid.

Tim Roop
"If you can do something about it, why waste time getting upset? If you can't do anything about it, why bother getting upset on top of it? -Shantideva

 

[MiggyD]

What do you mean ...

It looks the same as normal mode...

Did you see the words appearing in the corners? Also, did you get a warning notice about 'Entering Safe Mode...only using the minimum drivers'?


Also may want to try these:

1) try again to boot in "Safe Mode" (as timroop suggested). This time see if the words appear.

2) a Boot Log (again, as timroop suggested) would help to see if it's indeed a driver issue. But, I don't think so, partly because you said you saw an "explorer" error.

3) try to boot to DOS (before your WINDOWS startup screen shows). Preferrably an ERD or regular bootable floppy; but if your Windows Startup Mode allows 'boot to DOS' tak that instead.

3b) only if you can get to boot to DOS, try seeing if you switch from Explorer to FileMgr or ProgMan in the shell command. This may be crude (especially since most don't want to go back to Win 3.1), but you'll have some functionability. And, maybe a place to start from.

Keep us informed.
--MiggyD


--> It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's an OS update patch! Ahh!! <--

 

[Lanypoo]

Hi all. Problem solved. We were finally able to get into DOS via a round about sort of way. Since I was only watching, I can't tell you how. We tried to run setup as Timroop said, but that didn't work, either.

The whole problem was that I moved thousands of miles away and lost my win98 CD. Oopsies. So my friend "borrowed" one and we got it up and running again that way. I'm very happy to have my computer back and will look into learning how to do these things myself.

Thanks for all your help. Enjoy the rest of your weekends.