I can no longer open links inside IE

I have been happily using Windows XP and Internet Explorer without any problems until I downloaded and installed Service pack II. Some friends of mine told me that it probably was not SP2 that caused my IE to break but I'm not so sure. The main problem with IE is that if a link is inside a post (like if I add a link to the inside of this forum post) When I click on it, my IE does not respond and gets 'hung up'. It started happening right after installing SP2 but then I uninstalled SP2 and am still having the same problem. I am using the old netscape browser right now because I couldn't click on the forume topic to post (using IE).

The same problem happens with my email if IE is set to my default browser... I cannot click a link inside an email and have the link come up (it gets hung up). However, netscape is now set as my default browser so I can click inside links again in emails and it works.

A good friend of mine told me about major geeks and he seemed to think my problems were some kind of spyware and not SP2 that messed up my browser. (I use the lavasoft adaware program and Macafee)

Is there any way to 'fix' my IE so it will work again like it's supposed to? I almost downloaded the IE repair program from this site, but I am beta testing a couple of online games, and I am not sure if this would erase my files to the game... the game can automatically detect crashes and so forth, so sometimes I hesitate to download things that may remove that communication between my computer and their server.. if that makes sense.

I also frequent a forum (SWG) that has a little pop-up box for private messages and of course that no longer works in IE and if someone posts a link inside the forums, if I click on it, it gets hung up. However it works fine with netscape. I can browse the web in IE but at some point if I wanna click on a link it gets 'hung up' and I get the "Not responding" message.

thank you

 

I just had some problems that included having trouble clicking on some links in IE. I ran through instruction in http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 and it cleared it up. Hopefully someone here will have more input for you!

 

If you can't click the link there, then open a new IE window and cut'n'paste the link to it - that's what I had to do when mine was messed up. Or you can right-click on a link and go to properties and get the address the link goes to.

 

Well the only problem is IE... I was hoping for something a little easier that I could try first. I also do not want to mess with the files for the beta games and the other games I play online.

 

uh oh..how do I reset IE as the default browser? I cannot update my macafee using netscape...

 

I ran ad aware and spybot and it must have cleaned up whatever was causing the problem because it all works now. I'll have to really run these programs alot more often.