Now in the Task Manager, you want to click on File and then New Task (Run). Make sure you are on the Processes tab.
In the Open box, go ahead and type in explorer.exe and click OK.
That’s it! This will cause the Explorer process to be restarted and hopefully you will get your desktop icons, taskbar, and Start button back! Note that if the explorer.exe process is already running, then running this task will just open a new Explorer window on your desktop.
If the two methods above did not work, there may be some system files that have become corrupt and the problem won’t go away until the files are repaired. The best way to do this is to run System File Checker, which will check for missing and damaged Windows system files and repair them. You can run it by going to Start, Run, typing CMD and then typing sfc /scannow.
You’ll need to make sure you run the command prompt as an Administrator. When you type in Run after clicking on Start, right-click on cmd and choose Run as Administrator.
If none of the solutions above have worked, then you might have to take more drastic actions. One thing you can try is to create a user account, which will create a new user profile when you log in. There are many times when user profiles become corrupt and the only way to fix the resulting issues is to create a new profile. If you have any questions, post a comment. Enjoy!