Vista - icons are all messed up

hi guys i just signed up to post this question which is a real headache for me and ill try to be as detailed about it as i can be so here it goes.

i recently downloaded stylexp hoping to get a classical windows xp theme for vista but then it said its incompatable with my system so i uninstalled it. after that problems started popping up. for one my icons are all messed up like in my programs in start menue all the folder icons look like thy are unreadable but i can still check them out open and all that stuff i try changing the icon and it through its properties and no use on there now my recycling bin icon is covering up all my program shortcuts on my desktop. system restore cant be done it always says point was deleted so im stuck there. system start up has gotten very slow too internet is really fast for some reason but system is unstable now it takes a whole minute to send an item to the recycling bin when i delete something. a lot of times when i just log into safe mode and then back it solves the desktop icon problem but my file folders in start menue are still not the origional file folder looking icons. would a full reformat help this problem? i asked on yahoo and a person says i messed up the system registry log. ive also tried all ur methods.