Help Please

My computer has began acting pretty strange the past few days and I figured I would see if i can get some help as to determining why. I'm noticing subtle changes: some options in my Control Panel doesn't have text and won't let me click on them, random files are popping up in random places with no file name and a white box for an icon, when I try to open a folder this "windows is installing" window pops up, and for some reason I can't install Office 2007 or the 2010 beta. I ran a virus scan using MSE and a malware scan using Malwarebytes Anti-malware both showed nothing. Should I use something else as security or is this something deeper than a virus?

Ghamper said:

My computer has began acting pretty strange the past few days and I figured I would see if i can get some help as to determining why. I'm noticing subtle changes: some options in my Control Panel doesn't have text and won't let me click on them, random files are popping up in random places with no file name and a white box for an icon, when I try to open a folder this "windows is installing" window pops up, and for some reason I can't install Office 2007 or the 2010 beta. I ran a virus scan using MSE and a malware scan using Malwarebytes Anti-malware both showed nothing. Should I use something else as security or is this something deeper than a virus?

It's virused...

Try a deep scan with a-squared Free - Free of charge Anti-Virus, Anti-Trojan, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Dialer and Anti-Worm Software - Freeware!

Do all the data base updates (takes about 15 minutes) and run the scan from safe mode if possible.

Do you have restore points from the time when your system was still "normal"?? If yes, do a system restore. That would probably be the easiest way to fix the probelm. For the future, I recommend you do imaging because you can keep the images as long as you like. They do not disappear over time like restore points. I still have images from last year when I first istalled win7.

My first thought is to do a system restore (like WHS suggested), it is a way of bringing your system back to an earlier time before you started seeing the these changes. Learn more about doing a system restore here, Windows 7 features - System Restore - Microsoft Windows. It is also good to keep MSE running in the background to help prevent these issues in the future.

Cheers,
Cassandra
Microsoft Windows Outreach