Desktop icons and taskbar not shown in Windows XP

Question

I am not able see any desktop icons, taskbar in my Windows XP system. Also none of the keyboard shortcuts like Win Key + R, Win Key + E are not working.

Yesterday I installed AVG 9.0 in my machine and was working fine. But today when I started the system an svchost error occurred saying "the memory at location could not be written".

What would be the cause of this issue?

Answer 1

Try starting explorer.exe via Win+R. If it does not work, execute the task manager (Strg+Shift+Esc) and spawn a new explorer.exe via File->New Process.

Sometimes the explorer is hung up so you can start it on your own.

The Taskbar is an instance of explorer.exe, so it may restart your taskbar.

Answer 2

You could also confirm that your screen is not setup as an extended monitor in your display settings.

Answer 3

A couple of things:

1. Uninstall AVG 9.0 and see if the problem goes away. It's unlikely to be the cause, unless you have two anti-virus programs running - they will cause problems - but diagnosis is always a process of elimination.

2. You could try swapping out your memory modules to eliminate memory failure. If you have two, take one out at a time and boot. If the problem only happens with one of them then it's faulty. If it happens with both then it's either another problem or both are faulty. If you have another machine put them in that and run something like Memtest to check them.