I'm back, since we haven't talked in a while. Obviously this old

[yy4me]

Granny needs some help again.

Yesterday, the various web pages that I visited loaded slowly in random squares. Took some time but eventually I could do or read whatever I wanted. Last night all seemed OK.

This morning the Icons on the tool bar(top of page) are gone. I cannot figure out how to get them back. All that is visible are the words: File, Edit, View, Favorites, Help. I can't even click on home without hitting the little drop down.
Thinking that I would be clever, I thought to do a system restore to a few days ago when there was no problem. System Restore will not restore to any date. I get a message telling me it could not be done. Tried 5 different dates, NO go.

Ran AVG a few minutes ago, no virus found. Have deleted temp files, did disk cleanup. no need for defrag,

Can't think of what else to do that will not get me into more trouble. Since I am computer illiterate, I have trouble understanding the most basic things and installing something like CCleaner gives me the creeps because once, quite some time ago, I did so and was petrified at what I saw. How do I know what is safe to remove ot not.

Anyone tell me how to get my Icons back and what is wrong with System Restore?
Windows XP
IE6
SP2 (custom updates done.)
HP Pavilion 526X

AVG, SpywareBlaster,Ad-Aware.

Any help is appreciated.

[canetoad]

1. Can you still get into your drop-down View menu?

If so, click on Toolbars and make sure everything in the sub-menu is ticked. You can always turn off the ones you don't need.

[yy4me]

2. Everything is checked except lock the toolbar. I have tried

under customize, to move the Icons from left side to right so that I have things like Home, forward, back, refresh, etc but can not get any of that to appear on my home page(MSN.

It also puzzles me that system restore will not work at all. After I send this reply I'm going to try and reboot this contraption. It is the only thing I have not tried that I dare.)

[canetoad]

3. Maybe try

running System Restore in safe mode.

Reboot your computer and as it comes on, keep tapping the F8 key until you get a black screen with some boot options. Use the arrow keys to select Start in Safe Mode (or similar) and hit enter.

The desktop will look different but don't worry, just try a system restore.

Edit: I just found this:

For Systems shipped with a Recovery Partition, such as HP, Compaq and Dell, to name a few, DO NOT let system restore monitor these partitions. See Disable Monitored Drives. http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

[yy4me]

4. Sometimes I leap before I look but It worked. I restarted in Safe

Mode and did a System Restore(before your edit) and am happy to say, it seems to be just fine now. The restore worked, the Icons are back and the page loading in such a strange way has seemed to correct itself.

Thanks a million.

[canetoad]

5. As a co-worker used to say

'Another satisfied customer'.

Let's stuff them, put them in a glass case and mount them in the lobby!.