desktop items gone and can't do anything

my boyfriend's son has an E machine but it has windows xp home
all of a sudden his desktop items are gone and he can't log on to the internet,he can't use system restore,he can't find his earthlink icon or even his earthlink file.
it's like he can't get any thing to work,he will use the search to find something but when he does it says can't be opened.
he is only 12 years old that is why i am doing this instead of him.
is there any suggestions you could give me to give to him?
should he just re-install the xp disk and if so i have an extra cd for windows xp home service pack one, he has the same windows but i have a dell and he has an e machine will my disk work on his computer too?

 

Have you looked at the machine? Here is the support page http://www.emachines.com/support/ also have good virus software installed and update it. Sticking Spywareblaster, Adaware and Spybot on there wouldn't hurt. You might have to use the RestoreCD. Apparently it comes with one.
Go into safemode and see if the machine works from there. This is the only way to get to the other administrator account in XP Home. He could just have a corrupt profile. Make sure to get all the critical updates and Sp1 if that isn't installed.
If they can get on the internet go here and scan http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp or
http://www.pandasoftware.es/activescan/es/activescan_principal.htm
http://www.trojanscan.com/trojanscan/

 

Right click the 'empty' desktop, select "Arrange Icons By > ", check "Show Desktop Icons ".

Good Luck
Top Dog

 

Just a quick thought
Does the computer have different users, try logging on as the administrator. If by some chance a new user has been created for whatever reason, this could be the problem.
Stitch