Need Help getting the Xp Desktop working?

You should be able to get it running and download the Service Pack & all the updates...

But you can't run it safely as there are no security patches being released. It is "ripe for the picking" to any hacker or phisher who has internet access if your XP computer is on the internet.

If you download the updates & install them using a flash drive on a newer computer - you will probably be okay - but you can't hook up that PC to the internet safely if it is running Windows XP.

If you want to use the computer on the internet - you'll probably have to download & install a Linux distro or pay for a Windows upgrade to a newer system. Or figure out how & where to find an older upgrade disk for Windows 7 that wasn't already used...anything more recent than 7 may not have drivers that work on that hardware and the operating system. Check the manufacturer's website to see if the drivers are even being updated...

Computers built when XP was the latest & greatest operating system are now getting a few generations behind (I have an *old* laptop from that time - 240mb of RAM and a gigantic 20GB IDE hard drive). Yeah - I have a smart phone, an iPad,4 and a three year old Android tablet with better specs than that.

How do I know? I love my older Dell Latitude D-series...but it is going on nine years old and originally came out with Vista on it. Dell doesn't support it with any drivers past Vista. My relatively newer E-series can run Windows 7 just fine and some models can run 8 or 8.1 - but Windows 10 might have to use older drivers, as the hardware is still outdated by today's standards...it might be from the Dawn of Mammals instead of a dinosaur.

1. Right-click on your desktop.

2. Select Arrange Icons By.

3. You will see a Show Desktop Icons without check on it. Click it to check it.

If that does not work, you have the XP screen virus.

I would not use XP on the Internet. Really, you can get cheap used Win 7 PCs.

right click on the empty desktop and you will get a menu window where you can arrange what you want including the task bar, ignore the anti XP opinions and the linux enthusiasts XP is still the best least resource hungry OS that microsoft produced, vista. 7 , 8 and 10 were only made to generate income and many times regardless of distro linux just isn't easy to use

Got a used Compaq V6105NR over Xmas. Specs says it runs XP media Center. My major beef is the desktop. The Start button & typical lower menu bar does not appear. Pushing the windows button does not change it. Control+ Alt+Del gets me to the manager to do things but I can not seem to get the basic Windows desktop to set up. I've tried the help section & I'm stumped why I can not fix the desktop. I'm head scratching Mac user.... Help?

Buy a new computer. Windows XP is out dated and no longer supported by Microsoft. It is wide open to attack if you go online. This is not a computer you should be using unless you never go on the internet.

Suggest you download a copy of Ubuntu and load that instead of XP.

Smoke

go to task manager by pressing CTRL+ ALT + DEl Keys twice. in process tab pls check explorer .right click on it and select end task.

go to Application tab and press new task , type explorer and enter. restart explorer is fixed, but you have to find the problem with remove installed apps or drivers before it happened.

system restore is the another way to fix it.

XP is no longer supported, and shouldn't be used...

update your system