not sure if you can do this in XP, but you could in 98. Boot to dos, go into the system.ini (edit it) and look for shell = explorer.exe and change it so that it says shell = progman.exe and restart. should boot you to the program manager. run what you need from there, like maybe sfc /now to check system files. (been working on 2000 and xp at home and these worked on 98 so right now my memory is VERY cloudy and can't remember if this will work in XP or not).