Ok, here's the situation:

Today I downloaded a bunch of stuff that supposedly would make my XP look like Vista. I kinda like Vista's theme, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The link is:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Vista_lizing_your_old_XP_computer_the_ultimate_tu/

I have no idea whether it was something in there, or the fact that I replaced a .dll in my system32 folder with something that would apparently let me view videos in Grandia 2 (PC Port), but now my laptop takes about ten minutes each time to start up. The desktop works; I can see the wallpaper and cursor, but there's no start bar or anything for ages. Oh yeah, I also installed Yahoo Widgets as part of the above instructable. I don't know if that would make a difference or not.

Any help would be appreciated.

My Specs:

1.7Gh Pentium M
512Mb RAM
128Mb Radeon 9600 Mobility

You can see why I don't actually want Vista on my system.

I uninstalled yahoo widgets, nothing changed. The name of the codec I 'installed' (all I did was add the .dll to the system32 folder and install a .reg file) is Cinepak. It (assumedly, I can't think of anything else that would have done it) made my sound not work. I'm going to re-install the sound driver, though.

In regards to the vista-ising, the only thing I got up to in regards to 'installation' were these things (cut from the tutorial):

2. Drag the fonts from XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Fonts\SegoeUI to C:\WINDOWS\Fonts

3. Drag the contents of XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Theme to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

4. Drag the contents of XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Wallpaper to C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper

5. The Vista screensavers are located in XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Screensavers\Vista Screensavers; some sweet extra screen savers are in XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Screensavers\RSS. Drag the contents of either or both into C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

6. Make sure you can see hidden folders (My Computer-> Tools-> Folder Options-> View tab-> select Show Hidden Files and Folders-> OK), then drag the contents of XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\User Images into C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\Default Pictures. You can undo that setting immediately afterward if you wish them hidden again.

7. IN XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Enhancements, run setup.exe to install Cleartype. Allow it to run after installing, checkmark the box to turn it on, then click OK.

8. In XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Enhancements\Aero Cursors, right-click the Install.inf and choose Install.

9. Drag Vista.Emulation.dll from XP_Vista_Conversion_Package\Games to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

Now, I deleted Vista.Emulation.dll because I thought it might be a problem, being in my system32 folder, but that made no difference, either. By the way, I got the tutorial link wrong, it's

http://www.instructables.com/id/WinXP-Overhaul-Guide-How-to-make-it-look-like-Vis/

I'm doing a virus scan with Kaspersky at the moment, but which other programs should I uninstall?

...except system restore won't let me do that.

"Your computer cannot be restored to [date].

No changes have been made to your computer."

I've tried it a couple of times now. Also, my virus scan only picked up one object, which was deleted. Still no change. The only other thing I installed recently was the Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection; is it possible that could be screwing my computer?

Well, I think it was something to do with Grandia 2. I just ended up formatting, because I need it for school and I didn't want to mess around trying to fix it and some other problems I had. Sorry for wasting your time.