Windows doesn't load completely

Question

When I turned on my laptop today, Windows started, but the toolbar and icons never loaded, so all I saw was my desktop. I had to bring up the task manager, enter stand by and then re-enter windows before everything showed up. I have turned off my computer and rebooted a few times, and each time the same thing happens. Is it possible I changed a simple setting that caused this? As far as I know, I haven't done anything that would make windows load this way. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

europa303 · Answer

Did you try doing a System Restore to a date before the problem started?  This could cure the problem.  Sorry, I have no idea what could cause the problem. Love that Windows.

Sean_D06 · Answer

No, I'm sort of anti-system restore...I suppose this could be used to give me a hard time about that one.

dave8555 · Answer

Sounds like explorer.exe isn't loading. Running the task explorer.exe from the task manager will start it. Make sure your registry has explorer.exe set as the shell.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]

Make sure Shell is set to explorer.exe

Windows General

Windows doesn't load completely

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