Mike's unfortunatley hit the nail on the head here.
The problem with Windows in particular as an OS to fix is that it's such an intertwined rabbit warren. It's why the forensics guys love it....
Probably the greatest warren of all is the registry. If something's gone awry in your registry then you've pretty much had it. And there's no real way to tell if a registry is healthy because some of the symptoms displayed could be related to something altogether unrelated.
As Mike said, it's certainly in everyone's interest to ensure IT knowledge is passed on down the line of experience. The problem here is it is difficult to define exactly what experience needs to be passed on.
Anyway, having said that, it sounds like your restore point seems to be working out. Although it is worth remembering for the future is that they can be a double-edged sword, I generally see them as more of a last resort, which I guess applies to your present scenario !
I'm sure I'll probably now have a dream tonight about you coming back here to haunt us saying you've reached the end of your year long saga with a perfectly working computer in hand !