Ask A Geek

Q: On Windows XP, where do I find my Microsoft Office 2010 (14) icons so I can change them with my office 2010 icon pack?

Q: I have a computer with Windows vista and when I turned on my computer the desktop icons and taskbar came up as usual. However, after about 30 seconds the desktop items and the taskbar disappear. They came back after a couple of seconds and then went away again. This continued for a few minutes until the desktop icons and the taskbar were just gone for good. Can you help me?

Q: My window explore task bar and icons are gone every time I start my laptop and also IE don’t work either. I don’t know what to do.

Q: When I right-click on my desktop the icons disappear and then the desktop refreshes without providing a menu. I discovered this after trying to create a folder in one of my directories where the screen also refreshes without creating the folder. No error messages. I’m running Windows XP Home – SP3. What can I do to fix this?

Q: I have a Windows XP emachine. For a couple of days now I have been getting around on my computer through Task Manager because one day my computer just went blank in response after a disk clean up. I can not seem to get to start or any desktop icons normally. I tried to restore my computer back to the last known operating day but that doesn’t work. So how can I, using only Task manager now, find my start button so I can access my control panel to reset everything or is there something else wrong?

Q: I have weird characters showing up under my Icons on my Windows XP desktop after a re-boot. Can this be corrected?

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!

Q: I’ve had this problem for a couple of weeks now. All the application icons in my taskbar have disappeared. The quick launch, desktop and other toolbar icons are still there though, and only the program ones aren’t showing. I’ve resulted to hitting alt+tab to switch between all the windows that I’ve got open. I’ve gotten used to it admittedly, but I’d really like my icons back. I am running Windows XP.

A: For the problem of disappearing programs from your task, there is a commonly cited solution at Ask Leo:

“Restoring [your currently running programs], while not obvious, is not hard. It appears to only need a registry change and a restart of Windows Explorer.

Kelly Theriot, a Microsoft MVP, has a set of tweaks available at Kelly’s Korner. They’re fairly light on documentation, and perhaps even a bit techie if you want to understand them. On the tweaks page scroll down to item #240, and click on “Programs Aren’t Minimized in the Taskbar”. That will run, or download, a “vbs” (VBScript) program which will, after confirming, reset the Taskbar’s properties. Note that several other aspects of the Taskbar will also be reset to their default states, but you should get your “running programs” area back.”

Q: My HP Pavilion shutdown by itself and when I tried to turn it back on it goes to the desktop but no icons come up. Nothing happens no response to anything, What can I do?

Q: I have Windows XP SP2 loaded on my PC and my computer is updated regularly using Microsoft Update. Recently my desktop icons have started disappearing and appearing for no apparent reason. I have defragged and error checked my computers hard drive but that did nothing. I also have an anti-virus program from AVG installed so I am fairly certain my computer is virus free. I have also checked for Trojans using spybot and nothing has shown up. My computer runs great besides the icons randomly appearing and disappearing.

A: I know that you have tried both anti-virus and spybot so I have some instructions to see if this will alleviate the problem for you. If it does not please let me know. This does require editing an entry in your registry so I strongly recommend that you backup your registry before you begin.

1. Ctrl + Alt + Delete and identify sysu.exe in the processes list.
2. Close it, and go to C:\Program Files.
3. Locate the folder ddm and delete it.
4. Click on start -> run and type in regedit.
5. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE remove the folder ddm.
6. Click on start -> run and type in msconfig.
7. Click on the right-most tab labeled startup.
8. Scroll down and locate an entry with no command line.
9. Uncheck the box and apply all changes.
10. Reboot your computer; check the checkbox for a window that comes up saying you changed startup settings.