task manager shows that my pc is boggled down with multiple tasks running simutaneously. i was ending what i thought were unneccesary tasks and now my desktop shows only my wallpaper. icons and start menu are gone. not sure how to go about restoring my active desktop. ive only been able to access files through task manager browser and cmd prompt. need help further identifying these tasks that are being run and which i will be able to safely end.

have 3 networked pcs

• Are you XP or Vista
• Either way, use Process Explorer instead
• Install Process Explorer
• Click Options and set Hide when Minimized, Allow Only One Instance, Confirm Kill, CPU History in Tray Icon
• btw. when it's minimized, note the red and green waves through its system tray icon
  • Green indicates total CPU usage
  • Red indicates the process using most the most the CPU time
  Hover cursor over the icon to get on CPU usage and who using most of it

Add process explorer to your startups with argument /t and it will start minimized

As to what happened earlier, If you killed Explorer you killed the process which is the parent of processes runnning on your desktop. !

In PE, click column Process to change views
- Alpha sort (A-Z)
- Alpha sort (Z-A)
- Tree view . Shows relationship between processes (parent child). In Tree View
=== > All the processes listed prior to explorer.exe was started during boot / startup
- ==>Note everything after that is a child of explorer

how do i go about restoring my desktop? iexplorer is not connecting. tried to connect via browse task manager. unable to download directly to my pc. would i be able to download on a different pc and then access the program through a shared file?

If you simply ended the task, reboot.

hang on.. sorry, missed that as ongoing... have you rebooted? and what is appearing on the screen then? just wallpaper?

yes i have rebooted. am currently contacting from a different pc as i am unable to connect atm. only the wallpaper shows and i do have full access of task manager

nvm. was running spy s&d... reason for for desktop not loading