Hello Guys WINDOWS XP WOES PART GAWD KNOWSI am beginning to wonder whether after all these years of simming and PC use ,I might not be better of without the shere amount of grief these 'wonderful' machines are causing me.My latest problemMy taskbar has gone.My startup key no longer functions.Its not hidden ,,.tried that.The task bar option in ctrl panel no longer does anything if I click on it.Task bar has gone POOF!Syestem restore points have vanished AGAIN.As usual looking on the internet produces masses of forum posts that don't help.So please Guys any ideas please.?PS Went to the library the other day and got a book out.I opened it ,I read it ,I enjoyed it.Maybe its time to hang up my flying boots.All this tech stuff is beginning to seriously P..S me off.AndyNot strictly flightsim I know, but bare with please.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318027

OK have got the TB and SM back .More by luck ,i checked 'services 'tab and started up some that seemed as though they might be something to do with TB and SM.I guess i was right this time.PS is there a list somewhere of all the windows XP services and what should be there default settings I.E manual,automatic etc etc I feel I may have (but not sure ) mucked these up.Does selecting the option in MSCONFIG to start windows with ,all device drivers and services ' mean that all the services will be given the default correct settings?If anyone out-there understands what I am trying to say then any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.Dammed back aches now as well.PS thanks Jimwill check out the link tomorrow Maybe I can throw some more light on my OTHER big PC problem 'system interrupts 'which I thought I had fixed ......BUT NO!! Sim sound crackling and distorted and panning painfully slow.FED UP!Andy

Ps Seem to have found such a list of XP services and there sate on a site 'The elder geek'Its a lot of list to wade through but I will give that a go .

Depends on how fun you want your next weekend to be but...have you tried a complete reclone of the OS. It depends what you have installed/can install/want to install.

Depends on how fun you want your next weekend to be but...have you tried a complete reclone of the OS. It depends what you have installed/can install/want to install.

Thanks TomIf i had a copy of XP home I would try a rein,unfortunately my PC came with XP installed ,but no actual copy on a disc.If! I was going to buy a new PC I would absolutely make sure it came with a copy of whatever OS installed.

If you have XP Home on your computer, you can make your own CD with it together with updates, etc, streamed in. Just head back to The Elder Geek site and search. If you can't find it, someone will point you in the right direction.Colin B

Thanks TomIf i had a copy of XP home I would try a rein,unfortunately my PC came with XP installed ,but no actual copy on a disc.If! I was going to buy a new PC I would absolutely make sure it came with a copy of whatever OS installed.

I only suggest a reinstall first since there are some people with very powerful backup software and this usually can fix whichever issue you are having with minimal downtime, its about 20-30 minutes for me to reclone one of my pc's. For others its a little more of a pain and troubleshooting first is the way to go.