Member Avatar for Dudeyman

I have a Dell 9200 Win xp and when I start my pc toolbar and task manager disapear, the mouse works the cursor but the click buttons do nothing .
I turn off pc and re start press f8 and try safe mode and get a black screen with "safe mode" in the corners.

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As reported, the Start bar and Task Manager vanish at boot and Safe Mode only shows the black screen with "safe mode" in the corners. rightly pointed toward repair options. Before a full repair install, try targeted diagnostics that are less destructive and let you preserve data.

Boot the machine with F8 and choose "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". If you get a prompt, try starting the shell and repairing common causes:

Start Explorer manually:

explorer.exe

Run System File Checker (have the XP CD ready):

sfc /scannow

If Task Manager is disabled by policy, remove that setting:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v DisableTaskMgr /f

Ensure the shell is set to explorer:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell /t REG_SZ /d explorer.exe /f

To rule out a corrupted user profile, create a temporary admin account and reboot:

net user tempuser YourPassHere /add
net localgroup administrators tempuser /add

If none of this is possible (no command prompt, controls unresponsive), first back up personal files by booting from a Linux Live CD or WinPE, or by attaching the drive to another PC. A repair install or reinstall will fix deep system corruption but will take longer and may require drivers and the XP CD. Proceed with caution when editing the registry; if unsure, back up the registry hives or seek hands‑on help. Windows XP is end-of-life—plan migration after recovery.

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Member Avatar for nanosani

Probably your windows explorer has been corrupted .. see if you can fix it with the repair of windows.

Member Avatar for Dudeyman

I cant get very far as safe mode isnt working as well.

Member Avatar for nanosani

You can boot from Windows cd and then do a repair of windows.

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