Opening links

My computer has decided to not open links whenever I click on a link it opens a new window then freezes with a microsoft label on the window, If I press escape then refresh it then opens. If I left click and try 'open in a new window' the same thing happens, this would only be a minor inconvienance (though bloody irritating) but some sites will not let me in at all (espically the banK) I have tried restoring origonal settings what else could I do?

I should add I have taken security features off my firewall, though they have not changed and it was working fine with them set higher previously.

Have you tried dumping you temporary Internet Files?

yes

Give this a try:

Description of the Internet Explorer Repair Tool
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...b;EN-US;q194177

Here's a link if you are using IE 6.0 with XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;EN-US;318378

Itried installing that but it says I have a more up to date version already, The correct definition of my problem seems to be...

Internet Explorer Hangs When You Click a URL Link for which I have found a solution http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;en-us;232484 if I had an earlier version of software
statrting to get worn down

A ha I now have found away to allow the re-install But don't have time before work, arn't computers intertesting!

I installed the spybot detector and removed 26 tricksy thingies but someting interesting there were no 'Tracks' or records of pagesI had visited? would that cause the problem I am experiencing? if one of my teenage children had say decided to set the computer to not store pages visited? I am still getting my headround the whole cookies thing (DOH) and my teenagers have this annoying habit of thinking they know everything and messing about resulting in the computer crashing (we already lost a hard drive) I think this is great for them to learn about computers except it is I who usually spends days trying to fix things.

Interestingly when I try and use a smilly icon I am taken to the forums home page? this ties in with similar problems I am having logging into some web sites.

Aint kids fun? They all seem to have their own ideas, which is great but like you say "who ends up fixing it in the end"?

I'd keep scanning with updated Spybot and AdAware also why not check for trojans while your at it?

Trojan Remover (30 day trial)

http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/index.html

good luck

I've got an anti virus and firewall (Norton and zonealarm) and no viruses etc, the problem remains

Did you update and immunize when you run Spybot? It wouldn't hurt to run AdAware (be sure to update it first).

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/

You could try this Start > Run > sfc /scannow to check your system files.

If all else fails, boot from your XP cd and do a Repair installation.

Perform a Repair Installation
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/...knox/doug92.asp

hope this helps!

sfc/ scannow gives nowt, I cannot reboot from disc as the aforementioned kids have thrown away the certificate with the code number on