Lost my taskbar and icons

[Frenkedelic]

I restarted my computer just now, and I only got to see my background, my wallpaper. My taskbar doesnt show, neither do my icons.

I can manually start programs using ctrl-alt-delete, all the programs work fine. A friend said that It might be the wallpaper, but I removed it and changed it to blank. I also scanned for virusses with Symantec online scanner, none were found. Last thing I did was deinstall Norton Antivirus 2004, but that went ok.

I also tried restore points, but somehow it only created one just now, but the option isnt turned off. I also cant select months, its stuck in november, while im sure i used it a month ago.

Two small other things. The fast keys on my keyboard for "My computer" and "Mail" etc dont work anymore. And when i turn off my computer (manually, pushing the ol' button) I see my taskbar and my icons in a flash.

So im not sure what to do next. Any ideas?

I used Windows XP Home Edition with a 2000MHZ pentium4.

[Frenkedelic]

Hmm, my housemate found a part of the solution. I had to decative explorer.exe and then restart it. Then the taskbar and the icons pop up again. But when I reboot my comp, the same thing happens again...

Also the small icons i had in my taskbar are now all gone, and the programs that automatically start when windows is started, like ICQ etc, don't start now.

Any idead on how to fix this?

[pam123]

Right click on the start button and choose properties from the menu. Then click on the taskbar tab. Remove any check mark by auto-hide. Put checks by lock the takskbar and always on top.
For the icons right click on the desktop choose Arrange Icons By and then choose Show Desktop Icons.