Steam's screwing up (....o'course)

I've been using Steam since it came out, always problems, this one's just weird...dont know what to do.

After double clicking steam the comp makes sounds like it's going to launch it, but nothing pops up. Ctrl-alt-dlt reveals it's running though...

I uninstalled, removes all traces of Steam and Valve i could find then reinstalled just Steam. Opened it and it updated (yay!) then nothing (no!)

All i want to do is play CS 1.6 damnit Steam :major

Any help would be would be appreciated.

 

hmm i say. when you close steam is it still in your task bar deal by the clock? try to exit out of it right there and reopen it. just a guess though. because i know sometimes it wont pop back up on your screen if its already down there.

 

I forgot to mention that, the system tray icon never appears, sometimes it says "Connecting to Steam.... " but after it's connected it does nothing, no system tray icon, no Games List...the only way i know it's running is by ctrl-alt-dlt and seeing the process.
Could it be something to do with registry entries? i dont know anything about the registry so i generally leave it alone except for cleaning.
Are there also any programs that remove all traces of Steam/Valve? I've seen the like for Aim and AOL...