Silkroad will have no effect on whether your startbar is visible or not. No game will. I hate it when parents have that strange illusion that they actually know
anything about computers.
Uninstalling or reinstalling the game will not delete your character. Character data is stored server-side to prevent hacking and any accidental loss like that.
One thing I would ask first about your start bar is, when you press the Windows key on your keyboard, does the start menu show? If so, it may just be that you've resized it downwards so that it's no longer visible. Try moving your pointer to the bottom edge of the screen and see if you can 'grab' the border and drag it up. Another case may be that you've set the start bar to auto-hide, and in this case simply moving your pointer to the lower edge of the screen should make it appear.
If this doesn't help, open up Control Panel and doubleclick "Taskbar and Start Menu". If "Lock the taskbar" is checked, uncheck it. If "Auto-hide" is checked, uncheck it. Now, if you apply the settings and click OK, and then move the pointer down and try dragging the border up, it should work.
If this doesn't work, the disappearance is not due to user-error and may be related to something more serious, such as a virus. Scan your computer for trojans and other malware and make sure everything is clean. Make sure to reboot after you do this.
Note that your start bar may not be at the bottom edge of the screen. Windows allows it to be positioned against any border. So if all else fails, look carefully at the sides and the top of the screen to see if maybe it's been moved there.