I use a Compaq Presario desktop, Pentium 3, running Windows ME. Recently the machine was very unstable and I decided to use the System Restore utility to reset the machine to a date several weeks previous to see if that would help clear up the problem. Unfortunately, the restore seems to have trashed my machine.

The machine will boot and the “Windows ME” screen will flash briefly. The screen then goes black, except for the curser. There are no icons or any other desktop elements displayed. I am able to move the curser using the mouse. When I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, the Task List window that usually shows which processes are running is completely empty. I am able to select the button options (“Shutdown”, “End Task”, “Cancel”) at the bottom of the dialog box using either the keyboard or the mouse.

Booting in safe mode yields the same results, except with a lovely gray screen, rather than pitch black.

I tried booting with my quick restore CD in the drive and I get a menu of 5 choices. One of the choices mentions that no user profile can be found. Might this be the root of the problem?

The last resort on the CD is a complete system restore to original factory settings with a total loss of all data files not originally on the machine. Because my backup has been sloppy this is definitely a solution of last resort.