blank favourites box

Hi all geeks, i have a problem with my laptop,windows vista basic,when i open the favourites box theres nothing showing,i've checked the programs and found it is still there,so i tried to put some of the favourites back in as normal but it tells me its already in there and if i add one that was not in the box at first, as you would normally do it goes into the favourites in the programs but still nothing showing in the box i would apreciate any help it is probably my fault by touching something that i should have left alone
cheers Longthwaite.: