[Cooldisk]

WIN XP with SP2, initiated a System Checkpoint Restore then as the system was rebooting and completing the process the desktop icons, start button, and system tray would not load. The screen only shows my wallpaper and a lonely pointer.
I have read some of the similar posts, but they have not been thorough enough to help out.
I have rebooted a couple of times and I get a quick flash of the bottom menu bar and then it disappears. I have tried inputting "explorer.exe" but all I get is a quick flash of the explorer and it disappears again.
Any help would be apprciated.

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Have you tried safe mode and another system restore?

[gerryf]

Have you tried safe mode and another system restore?

[Cooldisk]

Yes, I have tried multiple safe mode navigation and System Restores. Each time I restore I get a flash of blue at the bottom of the screen and then it disappears again. I have tried some of the msconfig, cmd.exe and explorer.exe in the task manager but to no avail. after suggestions from other posts. I think I'm doing something wrong.

[Retired Tech]

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter to replace the system files, you need the XP CD.

System File Check will show an on screen blue progress bar, reboot when the bar goes

[Cooldisk]

Had to go through the task manager to type that in. Acutually accepted it, but for a split second then disappeared. No blue bar or any activity on the processes tab.

Anybody know of a way to reinstall "explorer.exe" I'm sure that's where the problem lies.

Thanks, in advance

[Retired Tech]

Can you type chkdsk /f /r instead of sfc to see what it does, it should ask you to confirm for next boot, if so, click cancel

[Cooldisk]

What does that do? It did ask to check during the next reboot. Why cancel? What is this telling me? I'm almost to the point of a complete XP re-install. I tried the Repair feature while booting up from the XP CD, did nothing to fix this issue.

Thanks, again

[Retired Tech]

It was to check whether it would run anything from a command prompt

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL, and then click Task Manager.

2. On the Applications tab, click New Task.

3. In the Open box of the Create New Task dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.

4. Locate and then click the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

5. With the subkey specified in step 4 selected, right-click the UseDesktopIniCache DWORD value in the right pane, and then click Modify.

6. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.

7. Quit Registry Editor.

8. Restart your computer.

9. Install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 2.

[Cooldisk]

Well, first off, thanks for the on-going suggestions...

I navigated to the location you suggested. I found the "policies / Explorer" folder.

Within it (in the right pane) was the following:

[i](Default) REG_SZ (value not set)

NoDriveTypeAutoRun REG_DWORD 0x00000091 (145)

Is this something similar?

[Retired Tech]

Was UseDesktopIniCache there?

You would have click the + on everything up to and including policies and then clicked the word explorer in the registry editor

[Cooldisk]

No, all that was in the folder I listed in the previous post...I even used the Find feature to try and locate the "UseDesktopIniCache" it does not seem to exist.

[Retired Tech]

This would be the next step

You can use these to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to boot the PC and keep tapping the delete key until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, type Y then press enter and as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

XP Repair Install

Or here if you are unable to run XP Repair Install

Alternative XP Repair Install Method

Use Windows Installation CD to repair the current installation, from the list, which uses a slightly different method

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update