Something weird happened when I booted my computer. When Ad-Watch from Ad-Aware loaded, it warned me about adding stuff to the registry. I didn't pay attention and just assumed I picked up a virus at work that needed to be blocked. After clicking Automatic and Block, it blocked the insertion (which turned out to be Windows self-healing/fixing) of 320 entries back into my registry from the apparent crash that happened during my bootup. Then I discovered my .lnk (shortcut) and .exe files would open in my text editor, with a title including rundll32.

Turns out Ad-Watch essentially corrupted my registry. Worse yet, I had system restore turned off, so I couldn't use some of the solutions published about rebooting in safe mode to restore or using the Windows XP repair mode from booting the installation CD.

So Google found Doug Knox Windows XP File Association Fixes, which are some registry files to import back in that Ad-Watch blocked. The problem is the missing associations for .reg, .exe, and .lnk prevented me from opening regedit or just clicking on the .reg files to import. The fix to get the first couple of .reg files imported is to press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager. Once there, click File, then hold down the CTRL key and click New Task (Run). This will open a Command Prompt window (which wouldn't open through other normal means). Enter regedit.exe and press Enter. From there, the regedit file menu has an import option to get the first couple registry fixes imported.

To recover the Safely Remove Hardware icon, right-click on your USB drive, choose Properties->Hardware. Click Properties->Policies Tab click Optimize for Performance, click OK and Apply. For sound, in Control Panel, open "Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices"->"Sounds and Audio Devices", and click the Place volume icon in the taskbar checkbox.

I included a couple of the more important fixes on this post. The programs in the startup folder of my Start menu load, but the items that were in the regular Run list like Symantec Antivirus don't. I'm guessing some software re-installations will fix some of it, my network device icons, and probably some other things I already don't miss are going to take some additional work.

http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=678 helped me get the solution.