yea trend micro came back clean. and i didn't touch any settings at all that would change the way the desktop looks or functions. but yea.... today, i restarted my computer and BOOM. it's fixed. the thing on the left is gone and I can move around the icons again. weird thing about it...i didn't mess with any settings again. it just...went back to normal. weird huh? but it's still runnin wayyy slower than it used to and i already ran all the programs to clean it up and make it run faster.