i did a recovery and now nothing can be downloaded or put on desktop

About a month ago my computer which is running windows xp sp1. I went to aol for help and they told me to do a system restore and it restored everything to the way it was when i bought it. It has windows xp service pack 1 still and everything else. But now theres nothing but the recycling bin on the start up screen and when i go to the start menu and go to my aol and create shortcut by sending it to desktop the error message reads "error coping file or folder.
So I went to my compaq connections help site (my computer is a compaq presario) and then another error came up and said "microsoft internet explorer failed to load vendorprefs.
Which is fine but when i get on the internet and try to download files it will show me the sownload screen but it wont download and error says" make sure there is disk space or file is not write protected ".
All i want is to be able to download stuff again and put stuff on my desktop.

 

You'll have to post more information in order to get help. It's important to know what make of computer you have and what type of Restore method you used. Give full details of your Restore disk and any other disks that came with the box. Full system specs and why you did the Restore might be helpful as well.

I don't know what you mean by the "Send To" button so perhaps explain what that is too.

Don't be afraid to give too much information, there's no extra charge.

 

Please post a reply this time rather than editing your original post. Makes things easier to follow.

What problem did you have that the AOL folks thought would be best cured by setting your PC back to the original load it shipped with?

Are you using an AOL browser or just the regular internet explorer version?

Are you running XP-home or XP-pro?