No desktop after log in

I had went to the regedt32 to change the security settings on the hk_localmachine/software/microsoft/sharetools so that they could use the pictureviewer to open up a couple of jpegs that were not opening for them. As per a MS knowlage base article...at home dont have link.

Before doing so I made sure to make a back up, like the good little IT guy I am.

On reboot while trying to log in to the users account it will go...hear the windows sound. But no desktop. Nothing no icons, no start bar...etc..

Crtl-Alt-Del will bring up the task manager which allows you to log out or shutdown though.

So im like...okay..strange. Log back in as administrator and desktop comes back. I change the settings back. But it still does it. I take my backup and restore the registry. And it still does it.

Here is the kicker, Ive narrowed it down to whenever you log in either locally or on the domain and use a user account it will not come to desktop. But log in as anything with administrative access, either locally or on the domain and it works fine.

Im stumped. As I onyl changed one freaking thing and even restoring the backup didnt fix it.

Anyone?

If you right click on the desktop - do you get the normal popup menu?

Sounds like whatever you did screwed up the profile! Login as administrator and go look at the docs and settings folders for the users in question.

I'll say whatever idid messed it up. Only thing I can think of is maybe I fat fingered something while I was changing a registry setting.

And nope, right click does nothing. Upon further investigation, when you bring up task manager and look at the processes, only half of whats needed to load loads. One of the main things missing is explorer.exe

Log in as administrator and took a look at the documents and settings. Seems everything is in order. Go to all users...everything there...go to user in question. Everything is there.

Tried deleting and recreating a local user on the machine, does the same thing. Created an account with admin access locally. Doesnt do it.

It sounds like a messed up user profile, but you'd think that after deleting and recreating that it would fix itself.

when you bring up task manager under the user's profile can you go to file->new task and key in c: \windows\explorer.exe ?

in the past i have encountered this behavior with a virus fix tool set to run as a logon script.

not saying that is happening here, but if the first thing works it may provide you a way in to fix things.

Yes actualy I was able to bring up explorer that way. It allowed me to get in and open up programs I needed, but still no start menu or desktop. useable me for me ;) but definately not for a user.

After deleting and recreating the profile I was able to get the desktop back, but still no start bar, nor would the icons actually respond anyway.

Ended up doing an overlay first, and still no fix. After that it just got to be to long for them to be without a computer. So just saed what data the user hadnt placed in their folder and did the ole format and reload.

Works fine now!

Im gonna chalk this one up to a unrecoverable user profile. Im still miffed cause Im not sure if it something I did. Or something that was longstanding on the machine and what I did was just that last brick that toppled the structure. The user had power user rights before, so its possible he could have made some changes that didnt quite click with mine.

Ohh well...at least its working now.

I am having the same problem, caused by a virus fix... except entering that in doesnt bring up the explorer... and i really really do not want to reformat ... any other ideas to try and fix this anyone???