run appwiz.cpl this should show all your installed apps. Have all your apps really gone or is it the shortcuts that have disappeared. If the apps are still installed you have
more then likely logged in with a temporary profile. to confirm your logged in profile right click start select run and type cmd
it should display a cmd prompt with your profile name path eg:
C:\users\username1
Ensure you are logged in as an administrator open windows explorer, browse to c:\users you should have a list of users find your old profile for example c:\users\username2\documents and copy the contents of documents to you new profile. (apologies if this is not the case as if add remove programs is blank you may have lost everything and will need to restore to a previous restore point
