Solved No taskbar, icons or wallpaper after boot

Wiresetc · Mar 5, 2013

Hello all,

A few days ago my old laptop, a Toshiba, was acting slow, so I decided to try and improve its speed. I used CCleaner with standard settings and disabled some of the meaningless services and start-up programs in MSConfig.

After the reboot after cleaning, random programs stopped working. I got lots of svchost.exe errors when I tried to turn off my laptop. The next morning when I started Vista, there was no taskbar, icons or wallpaper. Just a black screen with one explorer opened. Right-clicking on the desktop was also disabled.

The first thing I did was try to open programs. IE, Opera, Media Player and all other things were still working. I searched the internet for solutions.

I tried the following things already:
- Ctrl+Esc to see if Auto-Hide is enabled.
- Ctrl+Shift+Esc, stop the explorer process and restart using the Run option.
- Entering safe-mode (it was exactly the same as a normal boot).
- Creating a different account.
- Disable all services and start-up programs, leaving only the necessary hardware drivers.
- Scanning for malware using AVG, Avira, McAfee and Malwarebytes.
- System recovery to previous state.

None of the things above solved my problem. I am at wits end, so now I am here asking for a solution.
My Vista is a Home Premium 32bit SP1. There is more info about my laptop on my profile if anyone needs it.

Thank you for helping in advance.

Edit1: Added another thing I tried. Also, when I try to use a wallpaper again, it disappears when I restart (back to just a black screen).

sticks · Mar 6, 2013

I am no expert,maybe run a sfc scan
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

wither 3 · Mar 6, 2013

I don't know what you turned off in Services.

If you can get to Administrative Tools\Services, restart the Desktop Window Management System and the Windows Management Instrumentation, even if they're shown as running.

Run msconfig.exe and make sure those two items are checkmarked in the Services tab.

Wiresetc · Mar 7, 2013

Did a SFC scan first. One damaged file was found and repaired: C:/Logs/CBS/CBS.log. Not sure if this is anything important, but unfortunately it did not solve the problem.

In Administrative Tools\Services I tried restarting the Desktop Window Management System and the Windows Management Instrumentation services. They were both already checkmarked in MSconfig. I restarted Vista to see if anything changed, but it was the black screen at start-up again.

On a side note, I have tried to fix System Restore. It keeps giving an error:
"An unexpected error has occurred. Shadow Copy-service does not work (0x81000202)."
If anyone knows how to fix this error, the taskbar problem could be solved as well.

wither 3 · Mar 7, 2013

Back in Services, find Volume Shadow Copy and right click on it. Select Properties.

You might try starting it in the General tab although on my system it's set for Manual. In the Log On tab, make sure it's set for Local Account. You could also try setting it to interact with the desktop although it's not checked on my system. In the recovery tab, you could set the action for the first failure to restart the service. This is all just a shot in the dark to see if you can get it to function properly.

Wiresetc · Mar 7, 2013

Thanks for that solution. The Shadow Copy error is now solved. I set the Service to automatic and for Local Account. I can create system restore points now.

However, there is no system restore point from before the taskbar disappeared, because this would be the first time the restore service is used. This means I can't return to a previous state.

There is an image of the view I have after a normal boot in the attachments just for clarification. If you need any screenshot of settings, just let me know.

Wiresetc · Mar 7, 2013

Wither3, maybe you have a different solution for this taskbar problem?

wither 3 · Mar 7, 2013

I don't have a lot of time tonight.

Do you have the desktop icons? If not, right click on the desktop and click on show desktop icons.

Hit the Windows key. Does that bring up the taskbar?

Wiresetc · Mar 8, 2013

Sorry about that. I appreciate you help.

I still have no desktop icons. Right-click does not work on the desktop and hitting the Windows key does nothing.
In Control Panel, Taskbar and Start Menu properties is not responding when I try to open it.
Everything else works just fine. Internet, Media Players, Photoshop and games are all working. I just have to switch between them using Alt+Tab.

wither 3 · Mar 8, 2013

In control panel, when you double click on Taskbar....., it doesn't open? What if you right click and select Open?

Wiresetc · Mar 8, 2013

It's the same. The mouse pointer turns to the loading pointer for 1 second, but nothing happens. It just doesn't open.
It might be best to just reinstall Vista. I have the install CD.

wither 3 · Mar 8, 2013

I found this as a potential fix-

1. Bring up the task manager (Ctrl+alt+del) and under file select "New Task" (Run). THis will give you a window "Create New Task". Browse to C:\Windows\explorer and click open. This should get your task bar and explorer icons. This is only a temporary fix. 2: Look for a startup called Msmqlntcert (Filename "C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32.exe" /s mqrt.dll) and make sure it is set to start.

townsbg · Mar 9, 2013

Just a thought: you still don't have both avira and mcafee installed correct? It is strongly recommended to have only one antivirus installed at any one time.

Wiresetc · Mar 9, 2013

wither 3 said:
I found this as a potential fix-

1. Bring up the task manager (Ctrl+alt+del) and under file select "New Task" (Run). THis will give you a window "Create New Task". Browse to C:\Windows\explorer and click open. This should get your task bar and explorer icons. This is only a temporary fix. 2: Look for a startup called Msmqlntcert (Filename "C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32.exe" /s mqrt.dll) and make sure it is set to start.

In my first post, a thing I tried already was:
- Ctrl+Shift+Esc, stop the explorer process and restart using the Run option.
I was not clean enough here. I used the New Task (Run) option and entered C:\Windows\explorer and nothing happened, except for that one explorer window opened.
The same is with C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32.exe /s mqrt.dll. Nothing happens. If I just open regsvr32.exe I do get a message saying "use /s or /i".

townsbg said:
Just a thought: you still don't have both avira and mcafee installed correct? It is strongly recommended to have only one antivirus installed at any one time.

Not really. AVG was installed as a standard scanner before the taskbar disappeared. I uninstalled it before putting on Avira and McAfee. Now I installed AVG back and no Avira and McAfee, just because there appear to be no treads now.

I thank you all for your help. I decided to backup my HDD and re-install Vista. It's a clean start and the easiest solution.

wither 3 · Mar 9, 2013

I was going to recommend that if what I posted didn't work. Let us know how it turns out.

Wiresetc · Mar 17, 2013

The problem is solved now. I found and used the recovery disc from my laptop to reinstall Vista and all the drivers. My taskbar, icons and wallpaper are back and the laptop is clean again. Thanks for the help, everyone.

wither 3 · Mar 17, 2013

Excellent! I'm glad your problem is solved.

Solved No taskbar, icons or wallpaper after boot

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