vista start up problem

[jimbobmacspud]

Whenever i turn on my laptop i can get as far as the login page which i do then the screen goes blank and then a few moments later My Documents folder opens. I then have to press ctrl alt and delete when i do i open the task manager and have to manually run the explorer.exe file. i was wondering is there any (easy way) to make this run automatically as it did before.

baby steps people i am not a computer engineer

thanks in advance for the help

[TheAnimus]

begs the question why is it doing this in the first place?

I would hazard a guess that one of two things has happened.

1) In windows you can choose which 'shell' you use in the registery, its here that explorer is normally invoked as the shell.
2) You've got a nasty program thats impersonating explorer.

I'd wager 2's more likely.

[dangel]

What did you do before this happened?

Have you tried using system restore to go back to an earlier time when it did work?
(hit the windows key and type "system restore")