Can't open programs in Vista

[ArcticChicken]

So, I started my laptop this afternoon and I've been having issues. The first time I started it, it got hung up somewhere, I wasn't paying attention to how far it had gotten, but the screen was powered on but didn't show anything for maybe five minutes, so I restarted it. It seemed to start up fine after that, but when it appeared to have finished I couldn't open any programs. It just sat there with the mouse doing the little circle thing that's replaced the hour glass. I got a Skype call, and I answered that OK and could mess with Skype, but I couldn't do anything else, not even open the task manager. I tried restarting the computer a couple times, and I left trying to open something for over an hour, but I got nothing. Right now I've got it in safe mode and that works OK, I'm running a virus scan, but what the hell do I do if that doesn't work? I should have a recent restore point, and a full backup from about a month ago, but I've got part of a paper on there that isn't backed up anywhere.

I was gonna back the damn thing up today, too. Fuck.