Resolved Desktop contents missing

Every now and then, usually when Windows hasn't kept up with my impatient clicking, everything disappears from my XPPSP3 desktop. This is usually fixed fairly easily by bringing up Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Delete, then selecting File > New Task and typing explorer.exe.

But this didn't work the last time; all that happened was the opening of the two-paned window that opens after right-clicking Start and selecting Explore. Rebooting fixed it but it's a messy solution. Anyone have a better suggestion?

BTW, when the glitch occurred, everything else seemed to be operating normally, mouse, cursor, left and right clicks etc. But no desktop wallpaper, icons, taskbar etc.

Thanks

 

I don't know the answer but it is not so good also.
If you have a recovery disk you can get all of your original files as they were before without change in your private ones and thus you have an original version of your system !
hopefully.

 

Thanks for your response marioz988, but there's no ongoing problem. As I said in my first post, it only took a reboot to get Windows back to normal, so there was no question of a crash or file loss.

But I was curious as to why the usual recovery process didn't work, ie, restarting explorer.exe via Task Manager.

 

Steve could be right here.
myself i always wait till everything is in memory then i click Explorer and.... especially Explorer and it is now a habit !!