All My Icons Have Vanished

[pastafreak]

Since yesterday,every icon on my screen has vanished....no program icons,no 'start' button,no clock,quick launch or notification area. All I have is this window,and the small Windows Live Messenger window.

I'd come back on my pc after a few hours-not turned it off,and had a "-----has stopped working" message...I can't remember if it was Windows or IE.
I was asked if I wanted to wait or kill pages-I opted to wait. This happened twice-then screen went blank for a second or 2.All this took only a matter of a minute. When it came back-no icons.
I tried F11, and also right clicking on the screen to get the 'properties' pop up...no luck.
I'm afraid to reboot,as I usually have to click on the Chrome icon to get pages back....and what if there's no Chrome icon to be seen?

[factor-fiction]

Have you tried holding down Control and then pressing the - (minus) key?

[RATTER15]

Right click on your desktop, select "Arrange Icons By", scroll down the pop up list and put a check mark next to "Show Desktop Icons". :-)

[ChuckFickens]

Do CTRL + ALT + Delete, select task manager, click on the applications tab, then click on the new task button and type in "explorer.exe" (no quotes) and click OK....

If it all comes back then do a restart.

[avanalarf]

you should never be afraid to reboot, and all your programs are included in the start menu (bottom left of the screen)

[pastafreak]

arrghhh...I did what factor said first....and now can barely read the screen....how do I get back to normal type size? ...before I follow anyone elses suggestions.
Ratter...right clicking does nothing....

[bibblebub]

ctrl 0 (zero)

[factor-fiction]

Reverse it by holding down Control and then pressing the + key

[ChuckFickens]

"how do I get back to normal type size?"

If you pressed CTRL and minus to make it smaller I'm sure you should be able to guess that CTRL and plus will make it bigger again.

[pastafreak]

Thanks Chuck...your advice worked-as expected.
And yes....I had figured out that CTRL + would work :-)