hi,
a freind's taskbar is not displaying anything, also no/some programs will open. He has tried restores, theme changes, restarts, and it hasn't come back. he can actually see the takbar, just like it would be normally, but no windows display on it. He is runing xp home edition sp2.
any help would be appreciated, I should be able to get a hjt soon

thanks, Jake

Hi, try this:

• Press Shift repeatidly until StickyKeys pops up and click on Ok.
• Insert your Windows Install CD.
• Press R.
• Type in the Run box: sfc /scannow.

Hope this helps,
Adam

Another way that might work - would be to hold CTRL+SHIFT+ESC...find explorer.exe and end task.
Then File -> Run -> explorer.exe

This basically reloads most of windows without having to restart. Not as good as a restart however.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think that the laptop has pre installed xp home with no installation cd (will double check). However he has switched to another user account and the problem is gone. I don't know if the other account is infected with anything though, I will try to get a hjt.

thanks, Jake