unresponsive icons on desktop

[Guest]

Using a XP Home w/sp2 machine, I recently began getting the "properties"
dialog box when I double click on commonly used desktop icons. The choices
of OK or CANCEL make the box disappear but don't open the appliation. When I
use the START/ALL PROGRAMS menu, the programs open OK. I tried deleting some
icons and creating new ones but that does not help. I ran the AVG anti-virus
and found none. When this problem started the wired keyboard also began
inserting strange symbols while typing. Astericks, and apostrophes appear
while entering email addresses for example. Would another antivirus program,
help? Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Rock]

Using a XP Home w/sp2 machine, I recently began getting the "properties"
dialog box when I double click on commonly used desktop icons. The
choices
of OK or CANCEL make the box disappear but don't open the appliation.
When I
use the START/ALL PROGRAMS menu, the programs open OK. I tried deleting
some
icons and creating new ones but that does not help. I ran the AVG
anti-virus
and found none. When this problem started the wired keyboard also began
inserting strange symbols while typing. Astericks, and apostrophes appear
while entering email addresses for example. Would another antivirus
program,
help? Any suggestions? Thanks!

See if this helps. From Start | Run type in
regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Click OK