DP
make sure you havnt set your taskbar to auto hide?
do you have the blue bar at the bottom of your screen showing at all times?
if you dont, put mouse on bottom of screen, and when the bar appears, right click anywhere on a blank bit of the bar, click on properties and click the box that says lock the task bar.
also, in the window, you will see it also says start menu tab, maybe your answer is in there?...click either start menu or the classic menu box and apply and ok it?
hope some of this is useful for you?