Setting Up New Desktop in Vista Ultimate

I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate edition using a DVD. Unfortunately my
old desktop and other XP settings are now in a separate folder created by
Vista. Any attempt to drag and drop icons from this XP Desktop folder onto
the Vista Desktop do not work.

Currently, the Vista 'Desktop' is just a blank screen that will not enable
me to right click or do anything. There is also no 'Start' icon in the
bottom left corner.

How do I set up a new Desktop under Vista? I am currently having to access
my programes from this folder and if I accidently close this folder I have
to restart the computer to bring it up again.

I have tried going into Control Panel to adjust settings, but nothing
happens when I click anything remotely to do with the
Desktop/Taskbars/Start.

Can someone give me some constructive help - previously the only advice I
was given was telling me how I 'should' have booted the booted the Vista
DVD.

Thanks

Greg

Hi Greg,

Sounds like something interrupted the upgrade process and the old system was
not fully migrated. Open Task Manager by hitting ctrl+shift+escape, then
from the Applications tab click on "new task". Type regedit and click ok,
then continue at the UAC prompt. Expand the branches to reach this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Click on the key, then look for the shell string on the right. Double click
it, replace the contents with just

explorer.exe

Click ok, then close the registry editor and restart the machine. See if
this allows your desktop to load.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Greg" <gregster@netspace.net.au> wrote in message
news:%23IA4IRxjIHA.944@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>I recently upgraded to Vista Ultimate edition using a DVD. Unfortunately
>my old desktop and other XP settings are now in a separate folder created
>by Vista. Any attempt to drag and drop icons from this XP Desktop folder
>onto the Vista Desktop do not work.
>
> Currently, the Vista 'Desktop' is just a blank screen that will not enable
> me to right click or do anything. There is also no 'Start' icon in the
> bottom left corner.
>
> How do I set up a new Desktop under Vista? I am currently having to
> access my programes from this folder and if I accidently close this folder
> I have to restart the computer to bring it up again.
>
> I have tried going into Control Panel to adjust settings, but nothing
> happens when I click anything remotely to do with the
> Desktop/Taskbars/Start.
>
> Can someone give me some constructive help - previously the only advice I
> was given was telling me how I 'should' have booted the booted the Vista
> DVD.
>
> Thanks
>
> Greg
>
>