windows doesn't start up!

[shiato storm]

i'v got a problem when I start up my computer...
i'm using winXP, when I turn it on it loads up as normal, sits on the start up screen then goes to my desktop - but displays ONLY the background, no icons, no task bar, nothing! I hit ctrl-alt-del and get the task manager - I see 'explorer' is running but nothing going, so i stop it.
then I hit 'start new program' and type explorer - at which point my desktop come back the way it should be with icons and task bar etc...

why would it not work the first time?? is there something I can do to repair it?

[Steve]

Explorer is possibly the buggiest bit of Windows - yes, even buggier than internet explorer - when it comes to crashing anyway.

Explorer crashes on me all the time - never at startup, but sometimes it half crashes, where, like in your description, the process is there but the shell is not.

Try running msconfig and see what other items run at startup - perhaps one of them is interfering with explorer - taking up a section of memory explorer wants (it's very picky.)

[Blub2k]

You have some sort of timing conflict in the loading of your stuff at startup, try the msconfig idea, sounds like the best one.