Windows 7 - Connection problems when installing new programs

I purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop with windows 7. I've tried to install a cookbook program, world of warcraft, foxfire, and a few more I can't recall off the top of my head, and all have the same problem with connecting to the internet. I've checked the firewall settings, made the exceptions so they show up on the list, tried turning the firewall off and they still don't get a connection. All anti-virus software is removed so that was not the issue. If I run in safe mode with network they work, but going back to normal mode they have the connection issue again. Does anyone know where the issue is and how to fix it?

Try the clean boot to find the source of the problem Same principle as safe mode

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

If the problem exists in clean boot, it may be a driver issue.

the Issue is still there in clean boot. Since Toshiba does not give you the recovery disks, will the ones I made install everything or can I have only window 7 install? I also see that the laptop will not read the external hard drive (NTFS format), nor will it file share with the other computers. I really dislike windows 7 right now.

hmmm
can you post a screenshot of your taskmanager processes?

You should be able to create firewall exceptions by following the tutorial in the link below. Maybe you missed a step hard to say for sure. If you have itunes installed then you need to delate the bonjour service because it causes many problems with sharing and connections. If you can't even share files then something is blocking the connection. Even the slightest remains of any type of A/V software or third party firewall will cause this problem.


Windows Firewall - Add or Remove an Exception

I've tried and retried the exception process, looked at the tutorial until I can almost say it word for word in my sleep. I've walked away and came back just incase I was making a mistake and just repeating it. I've tried the repair and it shows a port error but no way to fix the problem. Is that the whole problem? I have run out of ideas.

Most likely one of the many pre-installed softwares that your laptop came with is probably causing this problem but it's difficult to say which one it might be.

Thanks everyone, I found the problem, it fixed my connection issues and my network sharing. So everything is working great. Oh yea the problem was with the toshiba file that offered free stuff for a month. Even though Norton internet security was not installed and did not show up in control panel, nor was there a folder any longer for it, it was some how hidden within the Toshiba stuff. Once I started messing with that Toshiba folder up pops Norton, within the Norton list was an unistall so thats what I did, uninstall through there as it still did not show up in control panel. A reboot after unistall and everything works.

Eveyone, who has contributed to this thread are very happy for your success.

I should also add the problem with windows 7 saying the external drive was not formated and could not read or write to it even though it was NTFS formated, was also fixed by that uninstall of Norton.