No desktop icons or taskbar...help

[Will1]

Hey CF,

I got a computer (Windows XP pro, sp3) I'm trying to repair and I am stumped. After logging in, the desktop icons and the taskbar do not appear. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and the Task Manager will open right away. Also from there I can start some New Tasks. Explorer.exe is running, and my CPU usage is only around 2-4% on average. I have tried closing and reopening explorer but to no avail.

After about 20 mins the icons and the task bar appear, but the computer will then freeze for several minutes at a time. I would like to rule out the fact that it could be a virus/trojan/spyware/adware/malware/etc. The computer was completely fine on Friday, and I turned it on today and this happened. I made no changes the last time I used it, nor did I install anything.

I guess my question is, what would be the best way to scan for viruses in this slow state? I was considering the Knoppix Live CD. Anyone have any killer apps or have experienced this before?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Grantofhell]

Sort of, I had an issue on my modified XPx64 install where the start bar would take about 5 minutes to show. I fixed it by switching to MCE'05 xD. Seriously, though. I use Ccleaner and AVG to clean it up. It could also be lack of RAM.

 

[Holysky]

If you have a Flash drive or CD, you can download AVG or Avast to them from another pc, and just install it that way and run a scan.

Worst comes the worst, the virus deleted some windows files and you have to reformat.

 

[ringtemek]

hiren's boot cd has some virus scanners(I think) that boot on startup

how much ram do u have and what is your cpu type

 

[danny_2132]

if you have another computer and an external casing take out the harddrive and connect it to your other computer with antivirus programs and stuff,, then you can scan it using your other computer which would be quicker then your current one.