Icons on desktop not opening

Hi

please help (and if you can, answer in words of less than one syllable as I am not particularly tech minded).

I have an Acer laptop which is running Windows 8.1 I was trying to transfer a Gedcom folder from my Downloads folder to another folder in my Documents today. When I tried to open the documents folder from the Desktop screen, it highlighted, thought about it for about 10 seconds then decided to do nothing except refresh the screen. I thought I'd have a scout round so tried to open the document folder from the search facility, the folder opened but when I right clicked the folder that I wanted to transfer the document folder disappeared and took me back to the desktop.

I tried some other tiles in Start screen. My mail is opening but my Norton won't open either from the start screen tile or the desktop icon.

I have only noticed this problem today so can't say how long it's been going for. I have updated all the recent updates that have been highlighted when switching off my laptop.

Is there anything I can do??

Tweaking.com's Windows Repairs (All in One), accept defaults, add items 26 & 27, can be run either in normal [disable security stuff for that one session] or in Safe Mode.