Today I'm having a little trouble with my laptop. It started up fine, but only the desktop background loaded. The icons, start menu and toolbar were all MIA.

here's the BEST part of all though; I couldn't open task manager. On my laptop CTRL+ALT+DELETE makes a box pop up giving me the option of logging off, locking the computer, shutting down, retrieving the task manager, and changing my password. This box opened up completely fine! When I clicked task manager it didn't load at all.

Here's some information that might help you:

OS: Windows XP

I don't have any virus protection (heinous, right? ), and I've been getting a lot of pop ups. Everything I do - pop up! Even when I close the internet, there's a pop up. This is probably the problem.

PLEASE, PLEASE HELP!
Quote

This is probably the problem.

Quote

This is probably the problem.

Most likely.
I see Windows reinstall here.

I don't have any virus protection (heinous, right? )

Don't beat a dead horse. He already learned, I hope