Why are my task bar and desktop icons gone?

[Judy Lopez]

They're gone, like when I turn on the computer it just shows the wallpaper but not the desktop icons or the task bar. I have no idea what to do. I need help. I have Windows X Professional. My computer is Dell. I've tried a bunch of things, only one thing seemed to work, I opened up task manager and I managed to open Firefox and somehow everything went back to normal(or so I thought) I tried to restart it, I thought the computer would work fine but it went back to not having the desktop icons or the task bar. So I really need help? Btw: I have Norton Security Suite. I also tried Safe mode with networking, unfortunately it didn't work it was just black with safe mode around the screen. How do I get my computer to go back to normal? Please Help