I transferred email messages from my inbox to a folder on my desktop-when I try to open them I cannot-it was a stupid thing to do-can I do something to retrieve the situation. I had already deleted the emails in question after dragging and dropping and before checking if they would open on the desktop!!
Can you be a bit more precise please? What mail application did you drag and drop the messages from? Where exactly did you drag them to? What specific error messages appear?
Dragging items from a browser based webmail application will most likely mean that you have just dragged URL links to web content onto your desktop. If you right click on any of the items that appeared on your desktop and check the Properties then you should see what it is. If you have done this thinking that it would copy your emails to your desktop then I think that you are mistaken. If you have deleted these emails from your inbox/the server then I think you're stuck. Each time you click on these desktop shortcuts (which in turn point to the web) your PC will try to connect. But since the content no longer exists you are unlikely to make any progress. In short I think that you have lost the content in question.