[jkrsr]

Win 98 startsup, then the desktop wallpaper is the only thing visible on the screen. There are no icons, no start button, no taskbar; just a pic of a sportscar that was downloaded from the internet. The mouse/cursor moves OK, but there is nothing to click on. Left and right clicking brings up nothing. No keyboard keys have any effect, except CTL-ALT-DEL, which after the first click, shows no programs running and after the second click, reboots the system. Sorry, but I am unable to run any diagnostic such as Hijack-This.

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can you boot into safe mode or dos (command line)? Barring that, do you have another machine that you can download a bootdisk with (www.bootdisk.com) get a windows 98 se bootdisk

[gerryf]

can you boot into safe mode or dos (command line)? Barring that, do you have another machine that you can download a bootdisk with (www.bootdisk.com) get a windows 98 se bootdisk

[jkrsr]

Hi and thanks for responding jerryf:

Yes, I can boot into safe mode and also to a DOS prompt. I downloaded a bootdisk as well.

Any way to find the culprit?

Thanks much,
Kevin

[gerryf]

I'm sorry, I was not specific enough...does safe mode display the same problem? (no icons...)

[jkrsr]

When in safe mode, the screen has the same characteristics as normal mode; that is: no icons, no buttons, no taskbar. Only the wallpaper picture, centered, with a blank-black backround. The mouse cursor can move freely, however, right or left clicks of the mouse do not bring up anything at all. There is no way, that I know of, to access any programs or utilities. The computer is stopped at the desktop page as normally seen after booting up the computer.

I was thinking that possibly erasing the picture file of the desktop wallpaper might alleviate the problem. I have searched through directories, after booting up in DOS and haven't found the location of the wallpaper picture files.

UPDATE: While reading through advice that was given to other people with somewhat similar problems, I saw some advice that said to "hit CTRL-ALT-DEL as soon as the desktop appears and see what programs are running". Well I did that and it show "Mprexe" in the Close Program window. Shall I track it down and remove it?

Edited by jkrsr, 27 April 2005 - 12:14 PM.

[gerryf]

start with bootdisk from ww.bootdisk.com

at a:\prompt, type
edit system.ini
look for
shell=explorer.exe
change it to
shell=progman.exe

hit ALT, then F, then scroll down to save

Reboot.

Windows will load with a progrman as the shell.

click the FILE > RUN, then browse button

navigate to c:\windows\windows~1, locate iesetup6.exe, run that.

when it finishes, reboot, using the floppy, return to the above step and use
edit system.ini
change it back to explorer.exe
save, reboot

Fix it?

[jkrsr]

YES! Jerryg, you are a genius!

That computer is up and running just like before this all started. That is amazing.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

[gerryf]

Great!