Win 2000: Blank Desktop/Desktop failing to load

davestar_delux

davestar_delux

davestar_delux

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Joined
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Hey I have this weird problem... I went into TweakUI and set My Network Places icon to show on my desktop, it told me to log off and back on.

After I logged back on, desktop background and icons are gone, no right-click menu appears...

Anyone any ideas how to fix this?
 
you should be able to use ctrl-alt-del to bring up task manager. now use the run command to start tweakui and undo whatever you did? :)
 
marc2003 said:
you should be able to use ctrl-alt-del to bring up task manager. now use the run command to start tweakui and undo whatever you did? :)
Click to expand...


yup
or ctrl + shift + esc, then click File, Run
type explorer
 
No, none of that works. Explorer is running in Task Manager, if I go through run then it launches Windows Explorer.

I undid the TweakUI settings.

I have this Microsoft Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256194/en-us

but I renamed the file mentioned in it and it makes no difference. I think some other system file may be corrupted or something but don't know how to undo it or pinpoint it so it can be replaced. Really don't want to have to go down the route of formatting and re-installing.
 
If you think a system file is corrupt, when windows boots, press ctrl+shift+esc to bring up task manager. Go to the file menu --> run and type in "sfc /scannow" - you will need your w2k disk handy (unless you've set the install source as somewhere on your hd). This will check for corrupted files and replace any which have changed with the cd version.

Can you log on as another user? e.g. the local admin account?
 
I think some people think I can do nothing on this machine, I have the taskbar, start menu and can run the Internet and all my programs fine, it is just the actual desktop that is failing to load backgrounds, icons or the right-click menu.

=walls= I ran that thing and it didn't seem to find or fix anything . I WAS the only account on this machine and Administrator. However, I just enabled the Guest account and it gets a desktop no problem when I log on as that...
 
tis a corrupted profile then. create a new admin account and use that, or login with the new account delete the old profile. backup docs first of course... :p
 
davestar_delux said:
=walls= I ran that thing and it didn't seem to find or fix anything . I WAS the only account on this machine and Administrator. However, I just enabled the Guest account and it gets a desktop no problem when I log on as that...
Click to expand...

Yeah - unfortunately it doesn't tell you if it does fix anything...

As Marc2003 says - it's a corrupt profile. Pain in the a$$ to fix, as you're going to lose most of your settings (desktop pic, etc).

Create a new admin account and log in with that, then go to documents and settings and rename your old profile (e.g. to <username>.old).

Log out and in with your own account again and you'll have a default profile (i.e. blank profile). Go back to documents and settings and copy over: Application Data, Desktop, Favorites and My Documents.

Unfortunately you'll have to set your background pic, etc again.

Also, if you want to remove standard icons from your win2k desktop - you might want to have a look at gpedit, which is part of the OS and very unlikely to fsck up, unlike TweakUI. (you might even want to look into gpedit before rebuilding the profile - you might be able to rescue it from there... :)
 
Thanks guys, glad i've gotten to the root of the problem now and seem to be able to fix it.

Thing is, I can't copy my profile over at the moment as I have 30GB of .mp3s in My Documents and don't have 30GB free HD space, if I move these to say the C: drive root would they be safe there while I copy/delete and mess about with profiles and such?
 
Matt-Page said:
Burn to a DVD?

Cut and paste is risky....
Click to expand...

I can't see how it can be. Windows doesn't delete the file until it has been moved. If it fails to move for whatever reason then it will still be in its original location.
 
Zap said:
rename the old profile, log on as the new profile then move the files rather than copy them.
Click to expand...

Seconded - when moving files on one disk, the physical location of the files aren't changed - the entries in the MFT are re-written. No probs with that and it doesn't take up any extra disk space to "move" them. :)
 
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