explorer.exe is not loading

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therealdeal329

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hey guys, i was messing around with my computer tonight trying to change the start menu name... using this link http://www.theeldergeek.com/change_text_on_xp_start_button.htm so i followed the directions and all, and i restarted my pc, then it loaded up to windows but nothing else happened, i can press ctrl alt del and i can actually navigate thru different files, but i just dont have the start button or the task bar, its all gone... i restarted, tried doing a system restore but that really messed things up, now i have 640 x400 and 4 colors on my screen, lol... it sucks, i want to know if theres any other way i can do a system restore or am i bound for a format and reinstall? any help would be very appreciated...
 
haha, thanks for being a ginea pig, I was considering trying that guide myself. Sorry man cant really help you, I personally would say you'll probably have to reinstall windows XP. You wont lose any info. Dont reformat, just go through like you would install xp normally, and just select to Repair or replace current xp installation...
 
ok an update, i did back up the explorer.exe file before i messed with it, so i got the task bar w/ "start" button back, but the resolution is still set at 4 colors... but i do have it at 800x600 now... for some reason it wont let me change anymore settings, and if i do, it returns to 640x480, im gonna keep playing with it see if i can update the driver, if not i'll see if i can do a system restore...
 
i was trying to do a system restore from the win xp cd, but it kept asking me for the admin password, and i dont have any passwords set up on my machine, so it wasnt working for me... anyways thanks for the response, lol i may try to mess with it more on this machine... see if i can get it, but until i can i wont try it on my other machine...


edit: i just did a system restore from 3:50 pm today, and every thing is back to normal on my end... well i guess im gonna start messing with that on the computer im using now.... :grinthumb
 
I just did this EXACT thing a couple of days ago, following his instructions to the letter, and it works just fine here.... Only thing, when I click on your link, it doesn't get me there. Just a 404 error page. This is the link I used Start Button Name

When I used the Resource Hacker, I changed both string 37 and 38.

It's been stable as rock ever since I did the hack. It works great, and I cannot understand what happened, unless you made a mistake using regedit??

About you video settings, you'll probably have to reinstall your display drivers, then set it to what you want..
 
Good to hear you got it fixed. In the future, ALWAYS, make a backup of anything you are about to make changes to, especially exe files and your Registry. That way, if it goes to hell, and you can't undo what you did, you can restore the backups and still be ok.
 
Originally posted by Jaguarist
unless you made a mistake using regedit??

i have a feeling thats where i went wrong, i did try it on my other machine and it worked fine, im gonna try it again on this machine...
 
you might try Crtl/Shift/Esc to open up the task manager, then under "Applications" select "New Task" and then type in explorer.exe the "OK".
This will launch the missing file, and your desktop will come back up. Now with all of the tweaking you tried, this may need to be modified, but let me know how it works out...
 
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