lost desktop for all local users

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

I've been passed this machine by someone who knows less about xp than i do!
the pc starts, and 4 user profiles are displayed, but none of the users
has a desktop.
if i run taskman, i can start some progs, notepad, etc. but not anything
useful like explorer, work, ie.
what's gone wrong?
thanks, any help would be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Hi,

Massive user profile corruption? Hard to tell, and you probably aren't in a
position to give a history of the problems with the system.

Frankly, as the machine is "new to you", I would just dump it and do a clean
installation rather than wasting my time trying to guess at and clean up
someone else's mess. If you want to do the latter, then start by logging on
as administrator and creating a new profile, then see if that works. If you
can't logon as admin because you don't have the password, or because that
profile is corrupted as well, refer back to the first sentence of this
paragraph. If a new profile works, then recover any data you want from the
old profiles, then delete them.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

"springer" <springer.PressedPork@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:WVIrd.77276$38.73486@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
> I've been passed this machine by someone who knows less about xp than i
> do!
> the pc starts, and 4 user profiles are displayed, but none of the users
> has a desktop.
> if i run taskman, i can start some progs, notepad, etc. but not anything
> useful like explorer, work, ie.
> what's gone wrong?
> thanks, any help would be appreciated.