Corrupted Internet Explorer = I lose everything?

When I booted up my W2000 SP4 machine last evening (not reformatted since 2004...I know it was reaching the end of its current install) and once I logged in, the blank desktop with no toolbars popped up, but a command prompt window came up and line after line of text scrolled down the window.  I didn't know what was happening, but thought it was my SpyBot Search and Destroy scanning before the OS came up completely.  What did the text say?  I believe it was something like "Clear" or "Delete.... [basically any program line].cmd line after line.  I have never experienced this and was at a complete loss.  When everything came back up, I believe I got a message that said "Explorer could not initialize" (I'm sorry I don't have particulars...I'm still in shock) but only three icons were left on my desktop and non on the Quicklaunch toolbar.  When I tried dragging an icon down to the toolbar, I was told that the Internet Explorer directory was missing, would I like to create it?  When I said yes, dragging an icon down to the toolbar still didn't take.  More disastrously, it seems that any information from any oft-used software is missing.  Gone.  When I bring up Mozilla Thunderbird everything is blank and it asks me if I want to create a user, mail account, etc.  Same thing for my links in Firefox.  My history is gone.  Anything specific to my log-in is gone.  Interestingly, all of my programs are still present in my taskbar, but all desktop information, email, browser info, everything else is missing.  What happened?  And is it connected to me just getting DSL up and running a couple weeks ago?  I run ZoneAlarm, but I'm concerned that I'm not making my set-up as secure as it could be.  Help!  Is it possible to re-capture this information that's apparently been de-linked but I assume is still somewhere in the ether?Start Free Trial