Thank you for your help. The problem has finally been solved. My system was
infected with Malware/spyware and IE7 & hotmail returned to normal after the
malware was removed. I went to one of the anti spyware forums you suggested
and posted a Hijack This log. An expert advised me to use a programme SDFix
and
other programmes and follow some other clean up procedures. Once my system
was clean IE7 & Hotmail returned to normal (previously hotmail would not
syncronise).
The whole story and solution can be found here:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread...8&goto=newpost
(select page 1 on the thread to see it from the begining)
Kind Regards
Chris