Yes, the LiteStep general documentation is fairly lacking... although the internal documentation for themes and such is decent.
I'm not sure what the problem you've been encountering could be. It might just be problems getting used to the interface. IIRC, double-clicking files on the desktop should launch them with the default application. The buttons on the taskbar, for the default theme, are usually set to the default installation paths for certain applications, the globe being Internet Explorer for left click, AIM for right click, the text pad being Notepad for left click, MSPaint for right click, and the file cabinet being a Explorer window (file manager) for left click, and the command prompt for right click. The triangle of circles icon (the LiteStep logo) and right clicking on the desktop gives the analogue of the start menu, right clicking on the LiteStep icon launches the file manager to the installed folder of LiteStep.
The trick of going to the task manager works with LiteStep as well. So if things hang, you can Ctrl-Alt-Del, and kill LiteStep, then use New Task to launch either explorer or litestep.
Also, I used the installer found on
this site, and I think it has some basic customization stuff in the installer, as well as a few plugins. It might be basically the same thing, but you never know.
Oh, and I think when I first started using LiteStep, I had some problems with the resource monitor plugin. When I took it out, a lot of problems went away.