Start menu doesn't work

I have been on the phone with microsoft for a more than 4 hours total and my computer still isn't working so now they want to charge me. At first, Internet explorer wouldn't work after we installed IE8. Microsoft had me restore the system to a week before it was installed. Our computer worked for about 5 minutes before it froze. Now, no matter what I do the only program I can use is AIM Instant Messenger. My start menu doesn't even open up nor do any of my desktop icons. When I place the mouse over the blue taskbar at the bottom, it just turns into the hourglass icon. Please help someone! I want to be able to at least backup some pictures from my computer before I throw it out the window! Thanks!