Firzen,
I had exactly that problem 2 days ago. For almost 1 day, I had to bring up
TaskManager by hitting the alt-cont-del keys, and then running explorer.exe
( as described by Mr Will Denny)
However, if it helps, I had resolved the problem by clicking start, then run
and type in sfc /scannow. You need your XP cd in the PC.
Let it run and after its finished, my desktop came back normal. Been OK
since then.
Hope this will help you.

===============================================
"Will Denny" <willdenny@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:elscPOrDGHA.2088@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi
>
> Next time you reboot to the Desktop, open the Task Manager, go to File>New
> Task(Run...) and type in
>
> explorer
>
> --
>
>
> Will Denny
> MS MVP Windows Shell/User
> Please reply to the News Groups
>
> "Firzen" <Firzen@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9C40E402-5C44-4FC8-964B-2FD646498BB8@microsoft.com...
>>I have windows XP home edition, and when I star windows the desktop only
>> shows the background, no icons or anything, just the background, I tried
>> restarting it but it keeps showing the background only...anyone know why
>> is
>> this happening or how can I solve it?
>>
>> Thanks
>
>