nothing works on the desktop

hi,

This happens about 90% of the time when I have booted win xp (sp2) on my laptop: The start menu will pop up for me, but when i hover the mouse over it, it doesn't register this at all, it is inaccessable past the initial menu. Also, all forders and files, apart from direct exe files, like the one for my browser, are also innaccessable, I double click, the hourglass on the pointer shows some activity, and then, nothing. To shut down the computer I have to use ctrl+alt+del. Any suggestions/answers to this problem much appreciated.

 

It sounds like you need a tune up, for details how see: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,115630-c,xp/article.html

 

try running in safe mode to see if same issues happen and report back here if they do or if they go away. Start your computer and before you see the XP load screen press F8 multiple times until you see windows advanced boot options menu then select safe mode, the windows xp, then let it load.