IMac Won't Allow Me To Install Applications Or Even Open Folders

I have an iMac Intel Core Duo 2.33 GHz, with 2GB of Ram running 10.5.4.
When I booted my Mac last week I noticed a brown area on my screen. After the machine booted I could only open the applications that were in my dock or do a search for them through Spotlight and start the application from there, since it took many clicks to get to my Applications directory to open after clicking GO in the menu bar.
Even after the Applications directory opened (which took forever) I was unable to click on ANY of the applications and scrolling was extremely slow or not at all. I also had to Refresh the Finder just to get it to show up at the top of my screen or close the Application window.
I took the machine in for repair and they replaced the screen and told me that not being able to open folders, go to the Application folder or ANY folder was a software issue and not a hardware issue. They recommended I remove EVERYTHING in my Startup Login Options when I got home and that would fix the problem, it did not - I removed all 4 applications in the startup and nothing changed.
I rarely install applications, but I faithfully repair permissions at least daily and I have installed all of the latest updates Apple released in the last 2 weeks.
Thing I have done so far
1. Repaired Permissions
2. Verified The Disk
3. Reinstalled Leopard And All The Updates
4. Run Most of the options built into Onyx, Maintenance and Mac Pilot, since I have them already installed.
Nothing has made a difference, I am still unable to run anything in my applications directory, open ANY folder on my desktop or any other directory, drag an icon to my applications folder or drag a folder or icon on my desktop.
The only things I can do is run what few applications I have in my Dock and search for Applications using Spotlight and run them from there. They come up quickly and run just fine once they come up.
Any help or suggestions someone could provide would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much for your time!
Randy

Repairing permission daily is a complete waste of time and will not help you. In fact, repairing the disk permissions needs to only be done about 2-3 times a year at best.
You say you verified the disk but did you repair it? Did you get a message that the "disk appears to be o.k."? What kind of install did you do? My guess is you did an archive and install.
Onyx is a troubleshooting tool and should not be used on a regular basis for anything. Caches do not need to be cleaned on a regular basis and everything else Onyx and similar utilities claim to do are handled by the system automatically. Do not use these utilities unless you are having a problem.
My guess is you have a serious problem with file corruption.
Have you tried creating a new account? Try that and see if the problem follows to the new account or not.

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IMac Won't Allow Me To Install Applications Or Even Open Folders

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