No Icons No Start Menu Win7 upgrade

[krabkat]

Okay, I'm going to stay calm (HA!) and plead for help! I upgraded from XP to Win7 one week ago. I used PC Mover to do the upgrade since MS didn't offer a direct upgrade from XP. I had a few compatibility problems but managed to fix all but my HP Officejet 7310xi. Then, while trying to fix my printer problem and having to reboot my system many, many times I suddenly lost ALL icons except the ones in the lower right of the task bar (Quick start?) and my START icon doesn't work. It won't open at all. I can right click and use the context menus, I have a desktop background, all my shortcuts titles (the text) are there but not a single icon. This is also true for all of my folders including My Computer and Control Panel. Here is what I have tried so far:

- Made sure my profile is set as Admin. before making changes.

- Updated my graphics card driver.

- right clicked desktop and made sure the 'show icons' is clicked

- Made sure windows explorer was running.

- emptied all temp folders/caches and rebooted

- created another user profile and tried logging on with that to see if it is user related. I couldn't even log on as that user.

- went to c:/users/myname/AppData/local/IconCache. I thought this was going to solve the problem because I didn't have a folder named IconCache or Icon or anything close to that. I checked the other profile and it DID so I copied and pasted it into mine. Rebooted - no luck.

- tried restoring computer to previous date - no luck.

This just started yesterday for some reason - all the icons and start menu were fine until then. I can open my programs from the shortcuts on the desktop if I click on the text area -in the area where the icon would normally be, it is blank but is spaced out as though there was an icon there. (I hope that makes sense). Much more frustrating than missing icons is that the START menu won't open! I press the Start button (icon) and nothing - I tried using the windows key on my keyboard - nothing.

Here are my system basics:

Dell XPS 410
Intel Pentium 2.80 GHz, 32-bit OS
Dual Core RAID 500 GB each
RAM 2.00 GB
NVIDIA GEFORCE 8400GS Graphics Card
Windows 7 Professional OS

If you need any more info than that PLEASE let me know. I welcome any help or suggestions!!!

Thank you!

 

[seekermeister]

I don't know anything about PC Mover, but it sounds as though you used it to install W7 on top of your XP system, like some have done with Vista. Upgrading is not a good idea, even when using MS's native method. Generally, when things start going awry, the only good solution is to do a clean install of W7. If you have data that you want to retain, it should be saved on a separate partition prior to formatting the OS partition. If you have multiple harddrives, I strongly recommend that you do the new install on a different harddrive than the one that it is now on, and while doing the install, disconnect all other harddrives until finished. Doing it in this fashion, you will not have a boot menu, you will choose which OS to boot by using the F8 BBS Popup Menu to select the harddrive.

EDIT: I just noticed that you double posted this question...please delete the other thread.

 

[Minotar]

Im pretty sure explorer went funny on you.

If you have a disc,try this
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[jfar]

Hi you could also try this if Minotars suggestion doesn't help, which I'm sure it will.


icon-cache-rebuildhttp://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html?ltr=I

 

[Lee]

If Minotar, or jfar suggestions don't work you may have to reinstall. If a reinstall is called for then I would recommend you do a clean install. The upgrade path from XP to Win 7 is not the best way to go. Sorry to hear about you problems, but this is something we here at the Forums have seen since the final release back in October. We can only say that a clean install is the only way to go.

 

[krabkat]

SOLVED: no icons, no start menu

First, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to you all for answering me so fast - I was blown away!

Second, I started with MINOTAUR's repair suggestion and VOILA -It Worked!!!!

I am up and running normal with all icons and start menu in place and everything appears to be working beautifully. ('Scuse me while I cry a little here...I'm so happy).

One question: My original post apparently got on the forum twice - I don't know how it did that and I don't know how to delete the 'other' one. I'm new to forums, I've never used one before this (I will from now on!) so I'm not sure how to do some of these things. If you'll tell me how to do the delete I will happily take care of it.

THANK YOU so very much! This forum is a life saver!

 

[krabkat]

SOLVED: no icons, no start menu

First, I want to say a huge THANK YOU to you all for answering me so fast - I was blown away!

Second, I started with MINOTAUR's repair suggestion and VOILA -It Worked!!!!

I am up and running normal with all icons and start menu in place and everything appears to be working beautifully. ('Scuse me while I cry a little here...I'm so happy).

One question: My original post apparently got on the forum twice - I don't know how it did that and I don't know how to delete the 'other' one. I'm new to forums, I've never used one before this (I will from now on!) so I'm not sure how to do some of these things. If you'll tell me how to do the delete I will happily take care of it.

THANK YOU so very much! This forum is a life saver!

 

[krabkat]

Hey, it did it again...posted my comment twice! What am I doing wrong? I always use the preview before I submit so I can fix any typos - ? Halp!

 

[Minotar]

Hey, it did it again...posted my comment twice! What am I doing wrong? I always use the preview before I submit so I can fix any typos - ? Halp!

Glad you got it sorted
Perhaps your clicking the button twice by accident?It could be a simple thing

Oh..the bold bitlol

always use the preview before I submit so I can fix any typos - ? Halp!