missing taskbar and desktop icons

[moccspeed]

hello,

i was "fixing" my pc from numerous viruses and spyware, etc and also used hijackthis. i am pretty sure i removed a vital file or something because now whenever i start up my taskbar, start button, desktop icons and pretty much everything that is called a shell is missing. i can access various programs by jumping into explorer using the "windows button"+e to get into windows explorer, so i have begun backing up various files using nero. i was actually thinking of formatting, but there must be a reason why this happened and something i can do to fix it. if ne one out there can help me out, i would appreciate it.

if not, does ne one know the best way to get my system back. should i do a reformat, or should i use Xp restore point?

thanks

moccspeed

[moccspeed]

i will try to get a log on this forum, but i do not have access to the internet on my pc. i am at work right now, so i will see what i can do. thanks.

[notoriousBOB]

If you're lucky you'll get a popup that says something along the lines of "A third-party program has deleted _______, an inportant file, would you like to reinstall?" That happened when I n00bishly removed the registry entries for a fair share of the Internet Explorer configuration settings.

[degsy]

Welcome

Try running System Restore and see if can restore to before the problems.

Also, you could try a System File Check.
You can start it by running SFC /SCANNOW

[Commandr]

Check to see if you are running explorer.exe if not run it from c:\windows\explorer.exe.

[nibby]

If none of the above work, insert your XP installation CD. REinstalling windows may help.