Mark--
What happens when you go to the run box and type "control desktop" no quotes
in it? That won't fix the problem, but it should show the dialogue box,
(it has when the desktop right click wouldn't bring it up (transiently) for
me. If the problem is recent why not try some system restore points to
bring it back? If you don't remember error messages, try going to the run
box and typing in "event viewer", stretch it out, and see if you can find
any errors near the time this started in Application or System.
Chad Harris