I just got a laptop and want to transfer files from my home PC how do I do this?

Any one of several ways. Do both PCs have ethernet adapters? They probably do which would allow you to network them, either through a hub or switch or via a crossover cable.

I don't think I have those cables or any usb ones either all that came with my laptop were the cables to connect it to mains power lines and a cable to connect to dial up internet

Kind of complicated, but not too complicated.

If one or both of the machines has an auto-MDX ethernet port then a standard Ethernet cable then a regular Ethernet cable can be used otherwise a crossover cable can be used to connect the machines.

If both machines are connected together and the firewall configured properly and DHCP is used to get an IP address, both machines should get IP addresses in the range of 169.254.x.y. You can use the cmd prompt:

ipconfig /all

to find the IP address of the current machine. Go to the other machine and from the cmd prompt ping <ip address of the other machine>, e.g. ping 169.254.10.3. It should be successful.

Look up on the internet Windows Networking, Filesharing and firewall to sort through the other info.

This can typically give you the fastest connection when transferring from one machine to the other. It's not the only way.

That goes completely over my head, I only got the laptop a few days ago and I don't have the net on it yet and I'm not particularly computer friendly so I've no idea what ethernet is

I didn't say you had those cable, you would have to get them. I was just letting you know how you can do it.

Another possibility is if you have access to an external hard drive. This is basically just a hard drive that plugs into your USB port and is something you can save stuff to. You can then remove it from your Desktop's USB port and put it in the Laptop's USB port. This is just a possibility so you don't have to purchase anything extra if you or someone you know already has an external Hard Drive.

That's a really good idea actually I do have 1 of those ta much xx