Sh:t !! I moved my desktop folder and my whole cpu when haywire!!

[teddyFBI]

So I very accidentally dragged and dropped my "Desktop" folder into my "Cookies" folder. This caused nearly all the icons on my desktop to disappear (b/c the desktop folder was no longer where the computer thought it was).


Realizing my mistake, I simply went into the Cookies folder and dragged the Desktop folder back out, dropping it right back where it was before.

Big problem: none of my icons came back -- not only that, but the desktop started acting very very weird. It won't let me put existing icons on the desktop, nor create new ones on there.

I took it to 2 dif computer tech help labs, and they each told me roughly the same thing: that when I moved the Desktop folder, it messes up all sorts of internal pathways, and it's not as simple as dragging it back to where it had been b/c the pathways are sometimes permanently corrupted.

They both suggested I reinstall Windows. This sucks and would take an entire day.

MAIN QUESTION: does the explanation I got from the tech people seam at least plausible??
Reinstalling wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'd like to avoid it if I can.