Desktop Icons Not Working

I have a user with an NT 4 PC and he cannot get any of his icons to work. He had a dirty shutdown yesterday and today when he started up everything seemed to work fine until he tried to open his programs. When he clicks on an icon nothing happens. If he goes to My Computer and clicks on the Icon nothing happens. If he uses the Start Menu and clicks and Icon nothing happensI have done a back door and used task manager to open all the programs he needs but this is not a permanent fix. Does anyone have any suggestions without having to do a repair of the OS or a re-install?
Thank you SO Much!