Hi,
Welcome at the VMware communities forum.
Sounds like your taskbar has been dragged down, is it only the start button that is missing or the entire bottom bar?
Are you running Windows XP in a window or full screen?
What happens if you move the mouse to the bottom of the screen in the virtual machine and hold it there for a few seconds?
Does the taskbar re-appear?
What happens if on the keyboard -while in the VM- you press the windows key just once?
Does the menu that is attached to the start menu button appear?
--
Wil