It used to be that I could go up to the top of my desktop and there would be a file, edit etc. Now when I move my cursor over the words "Ubuntu Desktop" nothing happens. Also the "Add a launcher" entry when I right click my desktop is gone. Any ideas? Sorry if this question is poorly worded.
Even when I have the mouse over it it still shows this:
Perhaps you've gotten Nautilus 3.6, where Gnome removed a lot of the menus and other elements of the file manager.
What version of Ubuntu, and Nautilus, are you running? My desktop in Raring, with Nautilus 3.6.3 at the moment, behaves the same as yours. Gnome cut out a lot of the interface in 3.6; it pained a lot of users. Ubuntu stuck with the older version for 12.10. Here's one description of the changes, from last year.
Linux Mint, an Ubuntu derivative, created a fork called Nemo, from Nautilus 3.4, the stable version before all the removals. I haven't run that myself, and I don't know if there are any caveats in running it to manage your desktop with Unity. Here's a description from another Ubuntu news site, of using Nemo from a PPA.
Does it sound like this is what you're seeing?
Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run this command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk indicator-applet-appmenu indicator-appmenu
That will install the packages to make application menus appear in the top panel.
I dont't think that will get you creating a launcher. To add a laucher, you need Gnome panel. See here how to get that and create a laucher:
http://www.howopensource.com/2012/10/create-application-launcher-add-icon-to-unity-ubuntu-12-10/
