No desktop icons after update to 14.04

I had similar issues when I first loaded Ubuntu 14.04. It ended up being my video drivers were not installed properly. The drivers I had issues with were connected to Nvidia and it seems that Ubuntu 14.04 did not come loaded to install these drivers. I also had to set the display to the default to get my drivers to work properly. The commands I used are as follows:

set display=:0

ubuntu-drivers devices | grep recommended

This command will give you an output stating the driver file that is recommended for your system. Then use the install command to install it:

sudo apt-get install (recommended driver file)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

Reboot the pc, and see if this has repaired the problem.

Does your guest session work? If so, your problem is a conflict with the old desktop configuration files. A fresh start should fix things. Try backing up all the files starting with a dot (e.g. .Xauthority) and deleting them (directories too), from a virtual terminal (Ctrl-alt-F1). Then try the graphical login (Alt F7) (or reboot). New "dot" files will be created as needed with the new formats.