PC, No programs will open, cannot restore, any ideas?

Hello all, my computer illiterate buddy at work has fubared his PC so I told him I would have a look at it. When ever I start it up, click on admin user, it will load to windows, if I want to open a program, I must execute it as soon as windows loads. If I wait, I get an error and can not open virus scan, adaware, system restore, or etc. Safe mode does the same. Safe mode with command prompt will not open. The only thing I know he got was Antivirus 2009, which I have determined is now gone from the registry (I can open it at first and search). I can remove his HDD and put it in my old pc and run virus scan, but I wanted to see if anyone had an idea before doing this. BTW, I don't have his recovery disk to try to repair it. I have searched the web without any luck. Thanks!