Resetting PRAM is the same in OSX as in 9. You should certainly try it. There is no equivalent to rebuilding the desktop.

Try Disk Utility. Since you say that you are ignorant (nothing to be ashamed of!), I'll walk you through it.

1. Boot from the Install CD by inserting the CD and restarting while pressing the C key. Release the key when you see the Apple logo.
2. Do not click Continue; go to the Installer menu and choose Disk Utility.
3. In the DU window, select your hard drive and click the First Aid tab.
4. Click Repair Disk. If any problems are found, run this again (and again) until it tells you that everything appears to be OK. Problems fixed in one pass sometimes leave other problems that will be addressed in subsequent passes.
5. Quit DU and reboot.

Try repairing permissions. This should be done when booted from the hard drive, not the CD.

1. Launch Disk Utility, found in Applications/Utilities.
2. Select your hard drive in the DU window and click Repair Permissions.

I assume that you don't own Disk Warrior. This is a great app and much better than DU. Get info at www.alsoft.com If you have the cash, this is the best investment that you can make in keeping your Mac happy. Tech Tool Pro is another excellent choice; visit www.micromat.com

Cocktail and Onyx are two maintenance apps that you can download. They basically do the same things, but Cocktail is a little more convenient while Onyx is free. I prefer Cocktail. You can get it at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18282 If you use it, run everything in the Pilot feature. This will take some time (maybe 20 minutes) but gives you some good routine maintenance. Clearing caches (part of the routine) will cause the next startup to be slower than usual; subsequent startups will be normal. If you want to try Onyx, you can get it at http://www.titanium.free.fr/english/onyx/index.html Be sure to choose the version that is compatible with your OS. If you are using Panther, get 1.4.4 which has a neater interface and is known to be stable. If you use Onyx, click the Automate tab (I'm referring to 1.4.4, which is the version that I have) and execute everything except Optimize the System, which some readers have reported seems to go endlessly, and I'm not sure what it does.

A last resort would be to reinstall the OS using Archive and Install. Try the other things first.

Good luck.