Quick quesition regarding my desktop

[blueboles]

I'm running XP home and my desktop has gone away. I have a pretty background, but have to run all my programs through task mangager. Does anyone here know the path to the display settings. If that doesn't make sense I'm talking about when you say want to change your background or screensaver you would click start, then programs, acessories, settings, display. You know that whole deal.
I need to know the actual path that takes so I can do it from the folders. You know C:, programs, what ever... what ever.
I hope y'all can help.
thanks!

[TheTROLL]

It doesn't work like that.

[blueboles]

that's what I was afraid of.

[TheTROLL]

Why don't you explain what you're trying to achieve - what's the actual problem you want solved?

[blueboles]

I would like to know if there is a way to restore my desktop settings without having to reinstall my OS/ or a way to reinstall my OS without losing all of my files.

[Nomad84]

Did you just lose your icons? I still don't quite understand what the problem is.

[hopp]

You're saying you have no "Start" button on your desktop?
Will a menu pop up if you right-click on your desktop?
Can you open control panel by going to C:\winnt\system32\control.exe?

I think your problem may be more than just changing a setting. Did you install or unintall any software just before this happened?

[Spota]

try running explorer.exe. That should bring back everything.

[MtnDave]

Shortcuts to your startup icons are located in
C:\Documents and Settings\ your name \Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop
and possibly
C:\Documents and Setting\Adminstrator\Desktop
change C: if your boot disk is different.
If typing from a text window or in a script you many need to use quotes
around path elements that have blanks in them, i.e.
"Documents and Settings"

I also think TweakUI can fix this. I recommend TweakUI to everyone. You can download it for free from the Microsoft web site.

[CORed]

Have you tried rebooting? If that doesn't work, try running explorer.exe from task manager. If you have to do this every time you reboot, most likely some registry setting is screwed up and you may need to reinstall. Try a "repair install first. This will preserver you data if it works.