help! how do I access my photos on my icloud account from my pc desktop?

If your photos are in iCloud Photos you can use any computer internet browser, log into iCloud.com and go to the Photos app there.

You can also use iCloud for Windows.

More information:

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

and

Set up and use iCloud Photos on your Windows PC - Apple Support

If you didn't have iCloud Photos turned on but do have an iCloud backup, you can restore the entire phone (not just the photos) from iCloud but you cannot otherwise view the contents of the backup. https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521