Vista - Lost programs in start menu and inability to open CDROM drives.

I've had a problem for a month or two and I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. Maybe someone can give me an idea where to look and what to do.

A few months ago I came home from work (I have two kids, on 17 and one 11 that use the computer when I'm not home), and I discovered that all of my Start Menu programs were gone. In addition, when I tried to look at a CDROM in either of my two CDROM drives, the window for the drive would flash and then disappear and I'd never get to the drive. I've removed the drivers for both CDROM's and let Windows find them again to re-install them. Once they were installed, I can see them under "My Computer" and the drivers indicate that the devices are working correctly. However, I still can't access the drives. I can't relate this to any software (as far as I know) that was installed around the same time period and I can't seem to find a restore point that would get me back to where I was before the problem started. I'm not sure if the two problems are related, but they did start at the same time.

I can find programs by typing the name in the "start search" field in the start menu. And, they will run once I've found them. I just can't add any icons to the Start Menu -> All Programs list (there's just nothing there but a lot of blank white space). There were quite a few there before they just disappeared.

I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit on a Dell XPS on an Intel Core2 CPU 6700 @2.66GHz. with 4.00 GB ram installed (I know I can't access it all, but I use as much as I can access).

I'm a software engineer by trade and I have an electrical engineering degree. However, I was much more familiar with Windows XP and earlier. Vista is such a new animal to me that I haven't been able to figure out how everything works. I just don't have the time anymore.

If there is anything can do to help me it would be greatly appreciated. Not being able to write files to CD-RW's is getting quite annoying.

Thanks,
blcastle

P.S. Please forgive me if I'm breaking any etiquette. I'm new to using this forum and I'm not sure what to do. I'm just desparate.