[rarafuse]

Hello, I've read through the forums on this subject but I haven't seen one that exactly fits my situation. When I right click on the desktop, all I get is the Display Properties box with only the themes info. When I change the theme and apply it, the missing tabs peek over the top, I can click on the portion I can see and all the tabs come to the front as normal. If I then close the box and right click again all I get is the theme box, untill I change themes again. Any ideas? Thanks Ray

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Hi rarafuse.

Create a new user account.
Control Panel > User Accounts > Create new user account.

Log out of your current account and log into the new account. Right-click on the Desktop and see if the problem persists.

If so then the OS installation is corrupted.

If not then that other account is faulty. Copy over all your important files and delete the old account.

_

[WinCrazy]

Hi rarafuse.

Create a new user account.
Control Panel > User Accounts > Create new user account.

Log out of your current account and log into the new account. Right-click on the Desktop and see if the problem persists.

If so then the OS installation is corrupted.

If not then that other account is faulty. Copy over all your important files and delete the old account.

_

[rarafuse]

Hi WinCrazy, The problem persists in the new account so I guess if it annoys me much or I see other errors creeping in I'll reload. Thanks for the reply, Cheers Ray

[WinCrazy]

Here's a little help since you are going to "bite the bullet": Reinstalling XP

Be sure to back up all your important files to CD. DVD. flash drive, external drive, web file storage, etc., etc.

Also make sure that you have the PC's drivers either within the XP install or burned to a CD. You don't want to get stuck without drivers - especially the networking chip driver.

You should try to use XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to save all your settings, wallpaper, etc.
Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard > Next > Old Computer

This utility isn't the most robust - it screws up often enough, but if it works - that is, both the saving and the restoration - then it will save you a lot of time. Save the backup set first to the hard drive, then burn that folder tree to a blank CD. It will have all your files that you have put int 'My Documents'.

You should also do a manual file backup, too - just in case.

Good luck,
Ray

[1101doc]

May want to try this first: http://www.winhelpon.../articles/38/1/

[rarafuse]

Firstly, thanks to wincrazy and 1101doc. I thought I posted a couple days ago but I didn't read the little words and hit upload instead of add reply!The suggestion and link from 1101doc look good, I'll save it for next time(there's always a next time). The suggestions about doing backups were good, I have reloaded computers many times over the years and have always backed up. This time though, I used the recovery partition which indicated to me that my data files wouldn't be touched so I blundered ahead with the recovery and lost my data. Mostly, the data was also on other computers except for all the music I downloaded (1 song at a time) from Spiralfrog. I have had success using Knoppix 3.2 recovering files, but it fails to see the harddrive of this laptop. I've downloaded Knoppix 5 but haven't figured it out yet. Thanks again, Ray.