IE problems

[Alexandra]

I have several problems:

1. I can't download files ... I right-click a link to
download a file, then choose where I want to save it, but
the progress window shows no progress whatsoever, even
though my internet is working fine. No matter how long I
leave the window open to download, nothing actually
downloads ... and if I click a link directly to download
a program or file, IE crashes right away.

2. I've run adware/spyware sweeps on my system and
deleted everything that I could find, yet *every* time I
load IE, I get popups from the same company, no matter
what site I'm loading. (It's usually something
called "Sfondi Desktop" and I know that I can use a popup
blocker, but I would rather not have this on my system at
all ...)

3. I've tried to clear my browser history, delete
cookies, etc, but the same few sites (more specifically,
several livejournal.com subdomains) always show up as
visited links, even though I have not clicked them since
I deleted my internet files.

*Any* help would be much appreciated ... Thank you.

 

[Kelly]

Start by running ALL of these, then repost:

Ad-Aware
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot
http://tinyurl.com/btf8

CWShredder (Line 313)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Hijack This
http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Free Online Virus Scan
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp