My icons will not come on my desktop

Question

When I turn on my laptop it goes all the way to my desktop but then nothing happens. I have to go to task manager to turn it off because I can't get to start to log off or shut down. I need to do school work but can't get my computer to work. i figured I could go to task manager and do something but that didn't work and it's not the battery otherwise it wouldn't come on.