this one was particularly bad, as it wouldn't let me open ANY applications, ie. google earth, google chrome, paint... nothing. i turned my computer off and it seemed to disappear and so i ran an avg and an anti-malware software scan and nothing was found.
however now, although firefox works, it seems to have affected connectivity elsewhere, google chrome, internet explorer and google earth all don't work on the internet, they just say that they can't find webpages, etc. i don't know whether it has affected anything else, but my other applications seems to run OK.
later i also found that when trying to open downloads which are in ms office formats, they open in a new tab as usual, but then keep reopening, and they dont stop, leading to me having to turn the computer off.
just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar and if there's anything i can do?
pc by the way is emachines E525 running on windows vista
cheers
tom