Taskbar Preventing Operations On Windows 7

I lost the connection and so I started to shut down my computer. I had programs running that required the Internet to work, and when it went off, they had faded, which is what occurs when you try to shut down a program and it's lagging. Well, the computer took forever for me to pull up the Start Menu because of all these programs lagging, so I had to turn it off manually by holding the power button, which apparently threw it into Sleep Mode (the prompt comes up whenever I turn off my computer, though, since I usually leave my monitor on).Now, even after five or six attempts at restarting the computer, it will let me put in my password to gain access to my account, and then that's it. I will see the desktop and the icons, and the taskbar, but that's where the problem is. The taskbar won't stop loading, nor has it stopped lagging. I can't access anything from the taskbar and whenever I try, it won't let me do anything on the desktop, either. This morning I tried again, and it was still having loading issues. The cursor will turn into the spinning circle whenever I go to the taskbar, but back to the normal pointer whenever I move it away from the taskbar.I'm able to open the computer in Safe Mode and operate as normally.