Weird System 32 Problem (Folder Icons Missing)

Hey i'm new here :wave and am on windows vista home premium - service pack 1..
I've been having this really annoying problem for over 2 months and no one at my old forum knew how to help me.
I think it's a system 32 related problem, but not totally sure.
A while back, i was fiddling around with programs like mycolors (a desktop customization program) and my folder icons got changed during the process - like permanately. I tried right clicking folders and going to customize and setting the folder image to defaults but it never worked. After a while of nothing working I tried replacing my imageres.dll in system32. My friend, who had also has windows vista uploaded his imageres.dll
I tried just replacing his with mine but windows wouldn't let me. Imageres.dll is the file that controls folder icons appearance right? :confused He also gave me a copy of his shell32.dll. So, I downloaded this thing called BartPE that let me run a weird XP based OS off of a cd. Not all of it was in english so i couldn't read some things but i knew what i was doing for the most part. While running that, i was able to replace my imageres.dll w/ a good copy, but i got an error message (in some weird language) when i tried to replace my shell32. Still my problem is not solved. And on top of that, for some odd reason, my desktop wallpaper doesn't show up when i first turn the computer on, i have to re-apply it everytime. this started happening around when i first started using this dock called rocket dock on my desktop.
idk, what else to do..? I'm actually willing to install a fresh copy of either xp or vista, but would i lose all my files? is there an easy way to start fresh and keep your programs, files, etc.?

edit:
also thought i'd mention that i'm running windows blinds (changes appearance of OS) but this never gave me any problems..

 

anyone?? :cry

 

so no one can help me :confused ok..
anyways, i've come to a conclusion that i'd rather just start new on a fresh copy of windows, however, i can't decide if i want to change to xp, or just get a fresh copy of vista.. what do u think.
and how would i prepare for a getting a fresh OS?
b/c i wanna keep a lot of my apps, files, pictures, music, etc
but if i reinstall windows, won't it make me wipe my harddrive??
i do have an external hd, so what would i backup, just my whole user folder? or the whole C drive?? wouldn't copying my current C drive into a fresh copy of windows make the problem i'm having now still persist (since i'm pretty sure it's a system32 problem)
sorry if im not making too much since :-o
but all i want is a fresh copy of windows (be it xp or vista) w/ a fresh system32..i guess what i'm asking is, when you reinstall windows, does it give you a fresh system32?

someone please help me. i was recommended to ask my questions on this forum, but so far, no one has helped me..