I can't shut down my PC

Hello,

Since yesterday, I can't shut down my laptop. When you click 'Shut Down', it doesn't work. Nothing happens.

Also, when it starts up after being in Sleep Mode, it's supposed to go to the blue screen with the different computer users and everything. It no longer does that; instead, from a black screen it just goes straight to the desktop.

My Dad was using my computer yesterday. While it was starting up from Sleep Mode yesterday, just before the blue user confirmation screen, my Dad pressed the Shift key, and it just went straight to the desktop without loading everything. My gadgets vanished from the desktop and only a few icons on the Taskbar loaded. That was when the Shut Down button stopped working.

I turned it on from Deep Sleep Mode (there's Sleep Mode, then 'Deep Sleep', or whatever that's called). When you turn on the computer after it was shut down completely, then you get the option for Windows Vista or Windows 7. You have to pick one of the options. In 'Deep Sleep', it just goes to whichever OS was used last... in this case, Windows 7.

The gadgets still weren't there when I turned it on from Deep Sleep, but I right-clicked and picked 'Gadgets' so that I could get new ones. They showed up. Then, the programs that wouldn't load on the Taskbar, I also found from the Start Menu, and then they showed up on the Taskbar.

Did my Dad mess something up? Did I? What's happened to my laptop??? Should I try a forced shutdown? I've heard in some places that will corrupt the data, but will it???