I have a Dell laptop, Inspiron E1705 running windows XP
About a month ago my start bar and icon disappeared, I contacted microsoft support and had been working with them, I will cut and paste what they had me do:
1) MICROSOFT RESPONSE:
Please be assured you have successfully contacted the correct support team and I will be working with you to address your concerns as quickly as possible.
From your description, I understand that when trying to start the computer the Start button the desktop icons were missing. You downloaded a hotfix but it didn’t work. If there has been any misunderstanding, please let me know.
I understand the inconvenience this issue has caused. Please be assured that I will do my best to assist you in resolving it.
I suggest we perform the following steps to troubleshoot our issue:
1. Start your Windows XP to Desktop.
2. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open the Task Manager.
3. Click the File menu and click "New Tasks (run...)"
4. Type "CMD" (without quotation marks) in the box and click OK.
5. Type following command into the prompt window and press ENTER:
Reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RpcSs" /v ObjectName /t REG_SZ /d LocalSystem
6. Restart your computer and test the issue again.
If our issue still occurs, I suggest we perform the following steps to troubleshoot our issue:
1. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys to open the Task Manager.
2. Click the File menu and click "New Tasks (run...)", type REGEDIT, and click OK.
3. Click Export under the File menu, choose all under Export range, type filename for this backup registry, and click Save.
Then please refer to the following steps.
4. Expand to HKey_local_machine\software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Currentversion\Winlogon in the left pane.
5. In the right pane, find the "Shell" value.
6. Right clicked the Shell value and selected Modify and changed the Value to "explorer.exe" (without the quotation marks).
7. Click OK and restart the computer to check the issue.
8. Restart the computer to check the issue again.
Does the issue exist?
MY REPLY AFTER FOLLOWING ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS:Ok, I had to use suggestion #2. The computer does now load windows..albeit the icons are large and it looks different...so, now what do I do.
I do have the task bar showing, but an error window came up.
at the top of the window it says:
hpqth08.exe net framework Initilization Errorinside the window the message is:
Please set registry key HKLM\Software\microsoft\.NETFramework\InstallRoot to point to the .NET Framework install locationThanks for you help...this has been interesting.
MICROSOFT RESPONCE:
hanks for your reply. I understand that the computer can boot up now. But we kept getting some error messages related to .Net Framework.
The issue can occur if the relevant files was corrupted.
I suggest we perform a System Restore to back up the system to a state before this issue occurred.
Note: If you have some important documents or files which were created after the restore point, please copy them to My Documents. By doing this, even if you back the system up to the initial status, the documents will be saved in My Documents.
To restore your system to a previous state, we can use the following steps:
1. Before you start, please close all open files and close all open programs.
2. Click "Start"; click "Programs or All Programs"; click "Accessories"; click "System Tools"; and click "System Restore". The System Restore user interface should appear.
3. Select "Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click "Next".
4. From the restore points available, select an appropriate restore point when your system was working correctly and click "Next".
5. Click "Next" again. The restore process will run and your system will restart automatically.
6. After restarting, check whether your system functions correctly now. If not, you can undo your last restoration or select another restore point in the System Restore user interface.
MY REPLY:
I cannot find a restore point avaliable when the computer was working properly. The only date it is allowing me to use is April 7, and my system was not working properly then. What should I do?
They had me insert my original Windows XP disk and reinstall.
I am still getting the .Net error as well as this :
" The requested look up key was not found in any activation content."So while windows is loading fine now, the start bar and the icons are showing...these error messages don't allow me to do anything
I appreciate any help!!!