WIN98 user profile problem

Desktop running WINDOWS 98 SE ,only one user running on a peer to peer network.
User has set a password on his machine. He shut down machine last night, and logged in this morning and the system indicated it was building a user profile. Usedr now reports that his desktop icons are gone except for the defaults, and even when he attempts to start application from program menu, he gets message that the app needs to be installed.
I have encountered this on NT networks where the user.dat file is kept on the server, but never on a peer to perr setup with the .dat file being kept locally, and simply restored the file from a backup. Is there a way to fix this problem on this machine without reinstalling the apps?