taskbar start menu

:smileysad:I cant get my task bar and start menu thing to work. Nothing shows up on my computer screen, except for my background pic. None of the little icon things show up. No start menu, no taskbar. I have to hit the CTL/ALT/DELETE button to bring up the windows task manager then I have to type in aol to get on to the internet. It use to be I could just click on the little aol icon thing and my aol start screen would come up. I have to use the windows task manger to get into everything on my computer!  I have tried EVERYTHING  to get the start menu and task bar to work. I can get into control panel but when I click on the icon thing that says taskbar and start menu. Nothing happens. But  I can click on some of the other icon things in the control panel they open right up.

Also I've noticed that when I go into the control panel there are 2 icons for everything except  for the start menu and taskbar!  Theres only one icon thing for that.  What I want to know is how to I get my start menu to work and why are none of the icon things showing up on my desktop?  Oh and system restore does not fix this. I've already tried it several times.