Why won't my Acer netbook download anything from the internet?

I have an Acer one D257 netbook. I have used it for three years with windows7 starter and it ran fine. It recently crashed and I had windows 7 professional installed by a friend who is a comp. tech. Install was complete except Java was not installed because he didn't have time. He had installed Trend office micro scan for an antivirus. I have since uninstalled that opting for something different. When I go to download Java, AVG, or anything I get the expected dialog box showing, open, save, cancel. clicking on these only highlights the selected button and that is it. No security scan dialog, or user acct. control dialog. I'm running IE11 which is up to date, and windows does auto updates fine, just can't download manually. I tried disabling smart screen filter, popup blocker, windows firewall, and ActiveX filtering. I know this is dangerous do to not having any spyware/malware protection, but I cant download any. I have been through internet options, advanced, to make sure "do not save encrypted files to disk" was not checked. As I was told this may hinder downloads. I have also "Reset" IE to default, and restarted it. nothing seems to work. Other than the browser running a little sluggish everything else seems to be working fine. The user acct. control pops up for every other action that it would be expected to, except downloads. If anyone has a solution it would be greatly appreciated.

The user acct. control pops up for every other action that it would be expected to, except downloads

I don't think it should pop up on downloads, only when installing those downloads after they have been downloaded. Streaming installs may be different but I've not see UAC get in the way of that.

Sorry, I may have misspoke in the first post. What I meant to convey is that the file cannot be found on the computer to be installed. I am no computer pro by any standards. In my experience in the past after clicking open or save a security scan will run. Then a window asking if you would like to allow this program make changes to the computer. Also an option to view downloads. None of the above happens. Perhaps I am missing something simple.