Hi...I am in need of someone's help before my husband tosses the
computer otta the window. This past week we decided enough is enough
and got high speed internet. My husband's computer is pretty old and
has not had very many if any updates ran so he decided it was time.
After doing updates and restarting the computer he was left staring at
his wallpaper. Everything on the desktop was gone. He is working with
it now through task manager and has ran explorer.exe and found system
restore and backed it up to a few weeks ago. Still nothing. The
computer will not even let him get online so we cannot go to the sites
to download what I have found so far on the web. Any suggestions?

Cinna wrote:

>
> Hi...I am in need of someone's help before my husband tosses the
> computer otta the window. This past week we decided enough is enough
> and got high speed internet. My husband's computer is pretty old and
> has not had very many if any updates ran so he decided it was time.
> After doing updates and restarting the computer he was left staring at
> his wallpaper. Everything on the desktop was gone. He is working with
> it now through task manager and has ran explorer.exe and found system
> restore and backed it up to a few weeks ago. Still nothing. The
> computer will not even let him get online so we cannot go to the sites
> to download what I have found so far on the web. Any suggestions?

It really is impossible for someone who can't see this machine to give you
focused troubleshooting. My guess is that the computer was not
virus/malware-free since you say it was in a vulnerable state for a long
time.

At this point, you'd be best off having a local computer professional take a
look at the machine. Don't use a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.
The alternative would be to back up your data and do a clean install of
Windows. Do not connect to the Internet until you have installed Service
Pack 3 and an antivirus.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...alling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ