Hi CChris,
Do you have any entries in the "Start Gadget" section?
Have you installed the latest version?
One possibility is that a bug in a previous version caused invalid XML files to be written out. To fix this, you could try deleting the StartGadgets.xml file in the %username%\AppData\Local\Start++ folder. It will then get recreated with the default settings automatically.
Let me know if that helps.
Brandon