Dell question (desktop dissapear)

[steosaur(oWn)]

My friend as a new dell with nice spec, 160 GB hd, 3000+ Athlon etc, recently his desktop has sorta been "dissapearing", (programs still running, but cant access anything on desktop), a restart cures the problem, but theres go to be a better way. ill be happy to add more info just tell me what you want to know

[Zachery]

Sounds like explorer is dieing, has he done anything to windows lately? like running hijakcthis?

[steosaur(oWn)]

nope, maybe some casual downloading and installing, ill look at his comp in a little bit and add more to this

[Zachery]

Casual downloading and installing of what though?