No Desktop icons or Toolbar on boot up

Howdy
My mate is after ringing me with a problem on his computer. After he boots it up there is no desktop icons or toolbar. I got him to try ctrl/atl/delete and got him to start a new task "explorer.com" and nothing happened.
The computer is 3 years old emachine running Windows XP home edition.
Anyone any ideas??
Next step to use the recovery disks???
Thanks in advance.

Probably time to start scanning for malware if only to rule out that possibility. Check the "clean PC" thread pinned at the top of this forum. Oh - and is your friend.

Boot the safe mode (F8 on start-up -> safe mode)... when it boots it will give an option for system restore... run this and it will set your system back a few days.....



edit:

recovery disks should always be last resort....

If it is a virus should i do the system restore and then load the antivirus or is there a way to load this on first and run it??

seanied said:

If it is a virus should i do the system restore and then load the antivirus or is there a way to load this on first and run it??

Click to expand...

No, anything you do before the system resore will be lost... if the virus was there at the restore point it will be brough back by the restore...