This is the problem of my brother which I can't even solve. I guess that his computer was attacked by a virus.

His problem is that the taskbar and the icons are missing on startup. I already made a system restore but the problem still persists after restarting it. Any solutions would be much appreciated.

PS: He is using Windows XP

Is it perhaps just hidden below view because it somehow got set to auto-hide? You can move your cursor all the way to the bottom of the screen and wait to see if it pops up. Also make sure your moniter hasn't been adjusted vertically for it to disappear. If you can get into your Control Panel you may also be able to check the Taskbar and Start Menu settings and see if changing the settings fixes it.

I'm certain that it was not set into auto-hide because the taskbar won't appear even when I press the button with Windows logo on it. The taskbar appears on safe-mode but not on normal boot. The icons on the desktop are also gone so I can't open the control panel.