Well, success...and some further stuff...first off, I forgot to mention that nothing appears in my Start Menu save for Computer when I click on Start; however, clicking on it opens up a new window which includes, among many other things, Control Panel. So I clicked on that and followed the path you specified, and bingo! I now have a PROGRAMS folder again, though it and another folder I had originally created appear much lighter in color (?). But they do open. If I have acquired a rootkit, would going back to a past restore point eliminate it?

sbuxman