[sjag]

Hi I'm new here and need some help in identifying (and hopefully recovering)what is causing a situation that just arose yesterday. Im not sure what could be causing it. My system was running fine. The last day or so I had installed and ran programs called Free Internet Window Washer and History Audit and they seemed to work well and my system was still running fine. Im not sure if either is responsible for the behavior I am now seeing. Now I notice programs missing from my start menu like MS Word, MS Excel. I also see blank icons on my desktop for many programs I have installed over time which I had hoped to use to recover from this .... but they no longer work and the executables cannot be located. These programs lost include: Malwarebytes Anti Malware, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, Erunt, NTRegopt, and others which I am coming across as I try to execute them. These programs were installed months ago when I was instructed to install them while getting help for a previous infection. The lose of my Word and Excel is my biggest problem as far as recovery as I think I am limited as to how many times I can reinstall them. I tried to use the Restore function from Windows for 6 different restore points and none of those are successful. I do still have AVG, Ad-Aware, and ZoneAlarm available and running but nothing has been identified as being a problem. I am hoping that more of my prgrams (and files) will not disappear as the system stays on.
My system is running Win XP home version. My internet connectivty appears to be unaffected thusfar. Any help in resolution would be appreciated.... THANKS