Start menu will not minimize, desktop remains hidden

I only see the desktop clearly and the icons for brief seconds upon start-up, but then immediately the start menu covers (or shades) the entire desktop and hides the icons. I've tried tried clicking the start menu icon and right-clicking the start menu icon and clicking "Desktop" (which does nothing). There's no icon to minimize the start menu in the top right corner, the "tiles" are constantly showing even after I removed them all. That ended up turning it into just a blank shade still covering the desktop. I'm still able to access all the desktop icons and programs by clicking the small double arrows to the right of the "Desktop" along the menu bar to the right, as well as by opening the "All Apps" in the start menu. I'm at a loss. I recently had an IT guy "fix" my laptop, but instead he only fixed the constant airplane mode and he did nothing about this issue. Which is hard to miss; I feel like it makes it difficult to navigate the computer with the start menu constantly up. Also, I'm not sure if it's connected, but the brightness setting will not remain at the level I change it to (which is usually the brightest setting), even while plugged in. It lowers back to about just below the middle setting seconds after I've adjusted it both with keyboard shortcuts and with manually adjusting it in the Settings folder. I'm the administrator and the only one who uses this computer, but it will not save this setting. Very frustrating and reluctant to take it into yet another tech person who will just tell me they see the desktop in the background and they don't understand what the problem is.


OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3612QM CPU @ 2.10GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 8091 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE, -2048 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 678 GB (544 GB Free);
Motherboard: Sony Corporation, VAIO
Antivirus: Norton Security, Enabled and Updated