A couple days ago I lost all my programs that are listed on my start menu. I can find them in Explore, but when I bring up Word or Excel ALL of my old documents are gone. I went to Help and Support Center, then to system restore, but the window was blank. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Do you mean the recently used programs or All Programs on the start menu (XP)

The old documents in the programs. The new documents that I have used in the last couple of days are fine.

You can just drag and drop the programs you mostly use in the list ... they wont go away. I think you cleared the most recently used documents folder .............

Thanks... but what and where do I "drag and drop?"
No old programs are showing up in the start menu, nor are the documents that I have written over the last two years in my Word or Excel Program.
Thanks for you help, I do appreciate it very much

Use My Computer' or Windows Explorer, navigate to the folders where you stored them, and check that they're still present.

If you're accessing documents from over a 2 year period then the 'Recent Documents' thingy on the Start menu is a next to useless way to access them anyway.