So, I just burned a DVD last night and that took about 10 hours total. After that, I went to work. I get a call from my sister, she says computer is running really slow (this is after DVD is done). I say restart, no problem. She does and now on all accounts only the desktop wallpaper appears. Desktop icons and taskbar are gone. I tried to run explorer from Task Manager (which P.S. I am running firefox from the New Task... thing in the task manager), but then the taskbar just blinks and is gone again, like something is preventing explorer from staying running. I tried editing things in the registry that other sites said cause this, but none of the keys even existed anyways, so I didn't even edit anything. I tried running Internet Explorer to do an online virus scan, but that won't load either. I have now even done a repair install of XP, but still, same thing. I've also ran registry editing things from some Kelly place and other tweak places, but no gat dang luck. Just so you know, I have typed in and tried solutions from such queries in search engines as:

• "desktop shortcuts and taskbar completely gone"
• "all desktop icons and taskbar disappeared"
• "explorer won't work"
• "explorer.exe"
• "only background shows"
• "only wallpaper appears"
• "taskbar and shortcuts gone"
• "taskbar gone"
• "nothing appears on desktop"
• "something is preventing explorer from running"

I was wondering if I can avoid a total reformat and reinstall of XP. Any ideas???