In APT SA <
[email protected]> had this to say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I have a user running windows 2000 profesional sp4. He was using
excell and all of the sudden he got an error which closed excel and
he lost his desktop. He can not get his desktop back. When he
reboots and logs in, his my documents folder opens up but the desktop
won't load. Same thing happens when logging in as local admin. We
had pushed out auto updates yesterday so I uninstalled ms05-051 but
this had no effect. Any help fixing this would be appreciated.
This is going to sound a bit strange but try it - it's worked in the past...
First start the PC
Press CTRL + ALT + DEL
In the programs tab find and kill any instances of "explorer.exe"
Then under file > new task (run) start a new instance of "explorer.exe" by
typing it in there without the quotes
When/if the desktop loads then reboot
Yup, just plain old reboot after the desktop loads...
If it doesn't work then 2k came with Last Known Good Configuration (I think)
which might help...
Safe Mode :
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/safemode.html
I think that was in use instead of the regedit restore feature/fix.
One thing to consider for future thinking might be running explorer (the
desktop) as a separate process. It's a slight performance hit but goes a
long ways at keeping things running for you when you suffer from crashes.
I think the process is the same (I'm pretty sure it is at any rate) <g> for
2k...
Explorer as a Separate Process :
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/tips/sep_explorer.html
Notes:
* Just so you know editing the registry isn't the brightest thing to do
though many of us do it all the time. However, you have been warned. For a
better warning:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/general/regedit_warn.html
** Before you do this it would be wise of you to right click in the
left-hand pane on the appropriate branch and selecting the "export" option
to save it to a safe location so that you might restore it.
--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the
furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the
lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants it."
Sherlock Holmes
