Resolved XP Pro Activation issue

I recently performed a repair installation of Windows XP Pro, and when I logged on at the Welcome Screen, I got a popup that said, basically, "This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?" I have no problem with that, as this copy of Windows is bought and paid for. When I clicked "Yes ", it took me to my desktop, but it stopped there. All I get is a cursor sitting on top of my desktop background. No icons, no Start menu, no taskbar. Nothing. Ctr-Alt-Del doesn't do anything, nor does anything else. Every once in awhile, I get an hourglass next to the cursor indicating HDD activity, but that is it. When I restarted, and clicked "No" that I didn't want to activate now, it logged me off. I tried booting in safe mode, but the computer said that Windows activation cannot be run in safe mode. Any ideas? I am wide open!!! Thank you in advance.

 

Well, I can safely say I was able to fix this issue. Thanks to all who took the time to read my post. I ended up doing a second repair installation of XP, this time with the XP disk that originally came with my computer. The reason I didn't use it the first time is that it is a SP2 disk, and I had updated to SP3. I had slipstreamed XP and SP3 together to get a new installation disk, and that was the one that ******* up. This time, the original disk worked, and I'm back online. Thanks again.