Why cant i see my start button on my computer?

Question

Okay i have Windows XP. and when i turn on my computer, all i see is my desktop background and nothing else. even when i right click or whatever nothing happens. not when i refresh it, or restart it. or when i click F[eight]

on my keyboard so i can restart my computer at an earlier point that doesn't work either. so i don't know what i should do. can anyone help?

Answer 1

move your mouse to the bottom of the screen. or, if that doesn't work, monkey with the monitor settings to show the bottom part of your screen.  

Answer 2

You might have your setting configured to "auto hide" the start bar.  Try pressing the start key on your keyboard to see whether that works.

If you don't see a start bar at all, you may have to restart windows explorer.