Can you help me majorly with my HP Pavilon?

The computer takes a LIFETIME to load to the desktop area. When it finally crawls around to opening (seriously about 30 minutes) and I try to open the START menu - nothing happens. The button just stays pressed down. Whenever I try to open one of the folders on the desktop (any of them, including my computer, the control panel, all of them) it tells me that the Active X html cannot be found and the page might not open correctly. Therefor, none of the icons load. It tells me you can change the Active X settings in the security settings however I cannot find these and I am not even sure I will be able to access these because I can't get anything to access. What can I possibly do to restore my computer? I would like to clear everything off and start all over again with a clean slate but unfortunely I lost my CD where you can reboot the whole computer. I am frustrated beyond belief. Any help you can give me will be great. I'll browse your website and see if there's anything I can that will help me. Thanks in advance!