Missing desktop - icons, taskbar, menu!!

When I start my computer, there is nothing but the background picture! I can not open sections of the control panel to fix it. They are there - I can see them listed under desktop but I do not know how to restore the desktop. Help! I read the reply which
dealt with taking ownership of files and folders. Is this what I have to do or did my nephew do something with a user account?
My computer knowledge is very limited. Thank-you for any help.

 

Hi Jujam

You say there is nothing at all on your desk top does that include the task bar at the bottom which has the start button and clock in it.
Hover your mouse over where the taskbar should be, does it appear. If it does right click on it and put a check against the Lock Task Bar. Or click on properties and go in the un check the Auto hide task bar and check the lock task bar. Under the Start menu (customise) tab see if there are any settings in there that might need changing

Have you tried right clicking on the desk top and changing the settings in there. Have you logged on as the administrator or as another user.
Post back with more details of what happens when you boot up and what you see exactly when you get to desk top
Stitch

 

Sometimes just booting into Safe Mode then rebooting into normal mode corrects the "nothing but wallpaper" desktop.

To try it, boot the computer and repeatedly press the F8 key (at the top of the keyboard) until you get a screen with a boot menu. One of the choices will be Safe Mode. Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to choose it, then press the enter key. You'll get a message about booting into Safe Mode, click on OK or Yes or whatever it wants.

If that works okay and the desktop looks more or less normal, reboot and see if that solved the problem.

 

i actually had a problem like this once. what happened for me was explorer was not starting. what i did was hit ctrl+alt+del to get the task manager, then go to file---> new task and type explorer.exe as the new task. then you can try to fix the problem from there... or you could just start explorer the way i said everytime you reboot but that would get annoying

btw, i dont actually know if this will work for you

 

Thanks. I tried all of them with no luck. When I go to the user link, it says no active users.
Right click on desktop -nothing. Task bar-same.
Will not let me open the Taskbar part of the control panel.
I tried system restore and it will not go back before April 1 (when problem started) but I see what could be a problem. It looks like the child put the wrong disk in the computer and instead of his game disk, re-installed windows. Could this be the problem?
Typing explorer.exe as new task gets me message - can not find program. I can go into my e mail account and then to the internet.
When I use the help program, I get an error message which says a framework file is not available - V1.1.4322. Not sure what this means.
There is an account which does not show up on the Welcome screen which has all the desktopn items listed.
I ran a disk check.
This is way too confusing!!
Thanks, Judy

 

from --> http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBM/tip6400/rh6407.htm

It is likely that the Show Desktop Icons feature is turned off.

To turn on the Show Desktop Icons feature:

1. Right-click on the desktop.

2. Hover over Arrange Icons By.

3. Press Show Desktop Icons.