Computer won't shut down, programs don't appear on taskbar

Sometimes when I start my computer, I'll find that my running programs don't appear on the task bar. This isn't too bad -- I can still use Alt-Tab to get around. Then I open the Start Menu, and the programs that are supposed to be pinned there are missing. Of course, they still show up under All Programs, and I use Launchy more than I do the Start Menu anyway.

The real problem comes when I try to restart or shut down. It gets to the point where "Logging off..." is written on the screen, and then hangs there (as far as I can tell) forever. I have to turn it off the really unpleasant way of holding down the power button, which I'm afraid is damaging the computer further. When I turn it back on, everything is usually fine since this only happens about 1-in-4 times my computer starts.

edit: My desktop also seems not to be automatically refreshing. The image attached to this post was saved there, but didn't appear until I hit F5.

I would try doing a system restore back to the point before this problem started happening. Click start, programs, accessories, system tools, then system restore. Choose the date before this problem started happening and see what that does for ya. If that does not do anything post back and we can go from there.

You may have programs running at startup that is causing this issue. Please see this tutorial to temporary disable them and see if the issue is resolved:

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup



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Please Run sfc /scan now using option 2 in this tutorial: SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Please post back the results.
Please indicate what message was displayed at the end:

Windows found no integrity violations

OR

Corrupt files were found, and windows was unable to fix them.

OR

Corrupt files were found, and windows successfully repaired them

dodopod said:

The problem was with Comodo Internet Security, and was fixed by uninstalling it.

Thanks for posting back the solution