Please somebody/anybody help me...

I don't know who else to turn to. I know this probably won't make much sense but my desktop icons and taskbar has disappeared...literally. I saw it with my own 2 eyes. It just happened. I opened up Firefox to check my emails, and there it was. The taskbar just seemed to dissappear out of thin air just like that.

I have googled every possible related topics concerning this problem, and unfortunately, not many people had encountered it. I also found out that this problem varies depending on the person's situation. Some are moderate that all the solutions/fixes did it for them. Some aren't as fortunate as others, having to resort to...I don't want to say it. Because I'm one of those who's had it worse....

At first, I thought it was a virus. Left-click and right-click does not work and there is not a single thing to click on the desktop in the first place. The only thing I could do to execute an app was Ctrl-Alt-Del. I am using Grisoft's AVG and I manually update it twice a week. There was a virus that makes the icons and taskbar disappear but it was created some 3yrs. ago. I'm thinking that ANY anti-virus software (even the suckiest one) would've picked it up if it tried to infect the hard drive. So I went to McAfee's and Symantec's free online virus scan and detected a dll file named: yaywuus.dll I figured that if I could delete it, it would solve this problem. Normal method does not work at all. So I had to d/l HijackThis. That did not work either.

Second alternative - Google. I've read various threads relating to my situation here. I've d/led fixes in the likes of a .vbr file and a shell fix in the registration(s) (? please correct me if I got that wrong) that restores the desktop and taskbar. I've installed them and it didn't appear to work either. Everytime I try to run, Explorer.exe, it (icons and taskbar) just disappears again.

SAFE Mode, also the same thing. To some people in their case, the taskbar appears in Safe Mode, but mine doesn't and is the same as in Normal Mode.

There is just this 1 thing that I haven't done yet. I came across a thread where this user is suggesting about a clean re-install or something..not sure. I'm running under Windows XP (Home) and he was saying about bypassing the 'C' and 'R' options and then a 3rd option is going to show up in the boot-up process. I do not know how to do that. Everytime I run the XP disc, the normal setup shows up.

Can anyone or somebody please help my sorry hide here. I was working on some class assignments for my Summer classes and I am losing vital days when this unspeakable thing happened. I honestly don't know what else I did that triggered it. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could give me other possible solutions here...

I'm using Windows XP and a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop.

Thank You.