windows xp safe mode not working

[McClintoc]

I am using Ad-Aware SE Plus w/ Ad Watch and Ad Watch keeps blocking a registry modification from some program called combo.exe. Knowing full well i can't get rid of combo.exe while running Windows normally, I reboot and run Windows in safe mode, but for some reason, safe mode isn't working properlly. I reboot, press F8, pick 'Safe Mode' from the options list and then it seems to load. I type in my Windows password for my user account and it proccedes to a black screen. This black screen appears to be safe mode (it says 'Safe Mode' in all the corners of the screen) but I have no desktop icons or a taskbar; I can't do anything. I press my windows key and no start menu comes up. This happens to both my user account and my admin account; all I can do is press the restart button on my tower and try again but it's the same result. Any ideas as to what is going on? Any help is much appreciated. I don't want to have to reformat.

 

[Imaulle]

try ctrl alt del to get to task manager then go to new task and start explorer.exe ? you can always just do the repair install that works great