explorer.exe not loading automatically

Something kinda screwed my macbook's Vista(SP1)

I woke up in the morning and turned on the laptop.
After logging into my Vista account, I only got a black screen.

I scratched my head a bit and then did the usual Alt+Ctrl+Del and went to the task manager's processes bar.

I noticed "explorer" process missing so went to the new task button and opened the explorer.exe manually.
Could someone please tell me what's wrong and the solution to this problem
(And please don't say................VISTA sucks.......... I know it does but unfortunately I play some games on Vista and they are my favs)

BTW my macbook's a 3.1

Strange. Explorer process should start automatically when Windows starts, not just in Vista but in every version of Windows since way back when...

When strange things happen in Windows, the first thing I advise folks to look for is either a virus or malware. Are you running AV software and is it up to date? What happens when you reboot Vista? Does explorer start or do you have to manually start it again?

Also, try booting Vista from Safe Mode and see if the explorer process starts up the way it's supposed to.

Regards.