Desktop problems with new Gateway

[tacoeater]

My customer has not released the computer to me yet but she bought a new gateway (instead of my generic of course) and now she has woes.
I went to see it and there was no recycle bin. I tried to restore it to the desktop but could not do it. I also tried to send a shortcut for Word to the desktop from the start menu and it did not arrive on the desktop.
Customer called Gateway and they could not talk her through anything over the phone which worked. She tells me that when she got the new computer she made a set of cds which are supposed to restore everyting back like when she recieved the computer. I hope it works. I tried restore to an earlier date and that did not work. Thdf computer did work correctly for approximately two weeks before the problem raised it's ugly head from the marsh.
MY QUESTION Has anyone had this problem with XP or a Gateway and what was the solution.