all my docs gone, new user setup

Hi - I need some help again from you guys. I'm running XP (sp 3 I think - not in from of computer presently). I booted my home computer this am and had a new screen background - strange! I tried to access the web but IE7 loaded and started asking preference questions, like loading for the first time. IE had worked in the past (unsure what version). I clicked on my documents folder and everything was gone (uh-oh). It's almost like I'm logged in as a different user, but I'm not. I have 2 users set up and I'm on the correct one. Computer was working fine 2 days ago but I did notice over a several week period during shut down the computer was trying to load windows updates during every shut down. That seemed strange, like the updates never loaded. Today at shutdown no windows updates loading. Also, a bunch of program shortcuts are missing off the desktop.

I'm not sure if I should following the XP cleaning procedure or not.

Can you point me in a direction?

Thanks,
Cal