I seem to have a pure bastard of a problem with my laptop, every so often it seems to lock up. If i press start then any of the progs in the menu i get a screen asking me "open with" but there is no list. If i try to turn off computer the only options i get are switch user and log off. The only other thing i have noticed is at the top of the start menu my name has gone. Anybody any ideas.

sound well dodgy since many of the standard options are missing like the shutdown ones...

all your virus software up to date?

One options is:
Log on to the pc with the administrator account, right click my computer, click properties, click advanced, click user profiles.

Delete your user name profile. This will lose you your settings so backup your email etc first!

Or F8 during start up and choose safe mode then do a system restore back to when it was ok. Safe mode, Start, All Programs,Accesories,System Tools, System Restore.

Rich

Good luck! I've just recovered my computer (fresh install- yey!) from a byatch of a problem. LSASS got screwed over (very much doubt its a virus cos I'm pretty neurotic about computer security)- wouldn't let me log in to safe mode, normal mode, safe mode with command line... In fact anything other than recovery mode (which is bloody useless)....