Blank Desktop

[holsch05]

Greetings. Briefly... I made a photo CD for my sister who returned it and correctly stated there was no data on it. I had made other CDs, so I did a system restore to a date that I knew I had successfully made CDs. (On that date I had downloaded Earth Google). During the restore, the computer hung up and I rebooted. At completion, all I had was a blank desktop. My son has re-restored WinXp and every indication it that all is okay. We've done all that lay people could do (numerous times.) We booted in Safe Mode (all we get is "SAFE" in all four corners and "Microsoft (R) Windows XP (R) (Build 2600)" text on the top), "Last Known Good...", etc.- nothing worked. We've even boldly gone into "Del" - but nothing. Neither of us is computer savvy and don't pretend to be. I'm sending this message on a borrowed computor. Any ideas?

 

[DonNagual]

Not quite following you here...

Mid-way through your post you say that after your son restored XP, your computer seems to be running fine now. Is it?

What exactly is the problem?

 

[holsch05]

I'm sorry. I meant that installing WinXP seemed to go okay, but when I logged on after that, the desktop was blank.

 

[Rick]

If Windows XP was reinstalled, the computer may have been formatted. This means your data could have been deleted. You may want to ask if your system was formatted or not. Windows XP (by default) also does not have any icons when you reinstall. Not sure what the reason was behind that, but I've seen plenty of people confused because of this.

Show My Computer, My Network Places, Internet Explorer and/or Recycle Bin icons on desktop for Windows XP:

Start -> Control Panel -> Display -> Desktop -> Customize Desktop
Check and uncheck the icons as desired.
Click OK

A second explaination might be that when Windows was reinstalled, a new user account was made. Different user accounts have different desktops. If this is the problem, you should be able to access your profile folder at C:\Documents and Settings\(Name of old account)\Desktop

If you had a password on your previous account, you may not be able to access your folder. In this case, you'll need to take ownership of the files.
Check out this post for more detail: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8914.html

 

[holsch05]

Thanks, Rick:
The problem is that I can't access anything from the desktop. There's
no 'start' icon, no right-click mouse function, and no 'ctrl-alt-del'. It's
a blank desktop. The curser is all that's there and all it does is move.

 

[fberger]

Question

:knock: What can I do with no regedit and blank restore window, to solve this problems. Urgent answers please!