display, taskbar and tab issues

Here it is: Display properties no longer shows the “desktop” tab, right clicking the taskbar and choosing toolbar shows all options grayed out, ie7 “open in new tab” is also grayed out. Explorer no longer offers the web view either. I have had ie 7 for awhile now but the other night, windows update prompted me to download it again, so I did. Not sure if that is when the problems started but it was around the same time. Any ideas?