Windows ME - No taskbar or desktop icons

Kyle_77 · Dec 19, 2016

So on my Compaq, when Windows ME starts up, all I get is the desktop background and my mouse. Scandisk does work(bad shutdown detected) but no taskbar. I CAN access task manager with Ctrl-Alt-Del, and I do not see explorer.exe. I checked for explorer.exe on the Windows ME cd, and it is there, but it does not load. Should I restore explorer.exe from the CD or reinstall? I have a multi-boot on this PC so reinstalling ME would mess up everything. I also did try Safe Mode

Quarkzquarkz · Dec 19, 2016

Have you tried running any scanner or virus checks such as malwarebytes ? If all else fails you simply might need to restore everything from that CD you mentioned. Just do a backup before re-installing and you're fine, good luck!

DeadRam · Dec 19, 2016

You can start explorer.exe manually. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose task manager. Click File Run new task and enter explorer.exe. Why are you running Windows Millennium? That is the worst OS ever created.

Kyle_77 · Dec 19, 2016

DeadRam :

You can't run new tasks on Windows 9x's Task Manager. Also on that computer WinME has never blue screened or crashed on me on this PC

Solandri · Dec 19, 2016

Wow, someone still uses Windows ME? That was the last version of Windows that ran on top of DOS.

System Restore was introduced with WinME. I believe it was turned on by default. If it's on and you boot off a CD, you might be able to do a manual restore (not sure if the instructions differ for ME). It'll be a bit tedious from a command prompt, but it sounds like you have nothing to lose.

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/214-perform-a-system-restore-manually-when-windows-is-not-bootable

Restoring explorer.exe might work if your problem is explorer.exe has become corrupted (it's the default "shell"). But usually problems like this are caused by a virus which attaches itself to your system and sets itself as the default shell. Simply replacing explorer.exe probably wouldn't fix that. You can try scanning the WinME partition with a virus scanner from another OS. If the peculiarities with MBR and primary partitions may make it impossible to view the WinME partition from one of your other OSes, an antivirus boot CD should work.

Kyle_77 · Dec 19, 2016

Solandri :

Wow, someone still uses Windows ME? That was the last version of Windows that ran on top of DOS.

System Restore was introduced with WinME. I believe it was turned on by default. If it's on and you boot off a CD, you might be able to do a manual restore (not sure if the instructions differ for ME). It'll be a bit tedious from a command prompt, but it sounds like you have nothing to lose.

https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/214-perform-a-system-restore-manually-when-windows-is-not-bootable

Restoring explorer.exe might work if your problem is explorer.exe has become corrupted (it's the default "shell"). But usually problems like this are caused by a virus which attaches itself to your system and sets itself as the default shell. Simply replacing explorer.exe probably wouldn't fix that. You can try scanning the WinME partition with a virus scanner from another OS. If the peculiarities with MBR and primary partitions may make it impossible to view the WinME partition from one of your other OSes, an antivirus boot CD should work.

I checked SYSTEM.INI and explorer is the shell. How would I restore explorer.exe from the CD

Kyle_77 · Dec 19, 2016

Well, now I am reinstalling ME

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Windows ME - No taskbar or desktop icons

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