Q: I am having a problem with my Dell Inspiron E1405 laptop running with Windows XP Home Edition.

Whenever I turn off the computer and reboot, windows re-starts but the icons do not appear, nor does the bottom task bar. I can see my background image and I can access the task manager by hitting ctrl+alt+del.

I can see processes running but no applications. I can resolve the problem by restarting usually up to 2-3 times, and eventually the system boots up with the icons and runs normally.

I have contacted Dell and outside of using their pay to help service, run all the hardware diagnostics to no avail.

I have used Malware Anti-Bytes (Spam Blocker), A CCleaner (Registry Cleaner), and Avast! Antivirus, but the problem still persists.

I am out of ideas and any help would be very much appreciated!