so the other day all the icons on my desktop stop working. that and all the wee thingies on the bottom bar and then i find that i can’t open adobe/skype etc.

all my virus scans etc come back negative. i suspect user error.

any advice?

*please be aware there is no level of stupid beyond ‘you’ve switched it on and off again’ that’ll insult my (lack of) computer skills. i await the fruits of your knowledge….

Sounds like someone’s pranked you:

Screenshot of your desktop, set as wallpaper, then removed all your icons.

It’s a workplace classic.

i was hoping it might be something like that except that when i go to all programs none of the stuff works there either, except explorer and, oddly, windows media player

Yes, check your wallpaper ( right click on screen and select “properties” from the menu ).

Other than that it might be a problem with explorer.exe ( press CTRL +Shift +ESC to bring up the taskmanager, go to processes and end any explorer.exe processes. You can restart explorer by selecting File->New Task(run), and typing in expplorer – this should bring your desktop back )

interesting. it tells me that explorer.exe isn’t found. which is what happens with everything else…

Assuming it’s not a prank, it could be an infection (though not one I’ve seen before).

Try running MBAM from http://www.malwarebytes.org and an online scan at ESET.com

If you pull up taskman (ctrl-shift-esc), select Explorer and End Task, it should restart Explorer.

Does it do it in Safe Mode? (press F8 on boot before the Windows loading screen appears)

It’s not something as simple as a broken mouse button, is it?

explorer.exe should be in c:\windows – if it is not there then something is properly wrong.

Explorer.exe isn’t missing, or you’ve have far more serious problems than “I can’t click on a couple of icons.” Corrupt or infected, or not in %path%, perhaps; missing, not possible.

I bet the desktop has been set to active or w/e that crap is that renders the icons unclickable

unfortunately it seems that something is proper wrong. i can’t quite understand why my internet is still working but everything else comes up as unrecognised.

oh well, shop or bin on monday. thanks for the tips tho.

Looked at this? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/837334