Everything changing to iexplorer

Most of the programs on my computer are changing to iexplorer. The icons are different. For example, AVG (antivirus) 18 wheels of steel (game) and Mozilla Firefox icons on the desktop have all changed to to the iexplorer icon. Plus, they no longer work. If I click on one of them, an iexplorer window opens up and tries to download something. I keep stopping the downloads, for fear that it is a virus. The icons are also different in the start menu, and don't work there either. Some programs seem to be gone. No matter what I try, Solitaire will not open. Works will not open. If I try to open it, a browser window opens instead and tries to download something. If I open an old document though, I can get into it that way. It is the same with Firefox. If I go through a link, as a page stored in history I can open it and browse. If not, iexplorer browser opens and begins those downloads. I looked in the defaults, nothing is set to iexplorer. I looked into changing the icons, the real icons aren't even in the list anymore. Avg is up to date, as is Windows Defender, neither are finding anything. Please help I am lost.

Thanks
Dawn

Methinks you need a full system scan, start with your anti virus then use Malwarebytes and do a full scan with that.
Depending on how much data is on the drive(s) it may take a while so be patient.

I have done full scans with both AVG and Defender. I don't remember how long AVG took, but Defender was a couple of hours. Then it told me computer was working fine. Admittedly both of those anti virus programs are free. I could purchase one, but I don't want to spend money on a new anti virus if I'm not sure that it can catch the problem. Is Malwarebytes free? Oh also, I did download two other free programs, Avast and Avira. But neither would open. If I try to open them, an iexplorer window opens up and begins those downloads. Defender doesn't seem to be affected at all. The only way I can get into AVG is to right click on something and choose "Scan with AVG". Once I am into a program, it will work, but opening something new is out of the question.

I don't have malwarebytes. I changed Avira's name to sVchost.exe, but it still won't open.

Another piece to the puzzle is that every time I shut down or restart the computer, about 13 things automatically open and start trying to download.

Try booting in Safe Mode and see if you can run the scans.

Thanks for trying to help.

I tried safemode, but nothing was any different. The new antivirus programs still wouldn't open.

I did get another piece to the puzzle, and it makes me wander if it is even a virus.

My son fessed up to copying a game from one of our older computers to a flash drive and pasting to this one. When the game wouldn't open, it gave him the option to chose which program to "open with". He chose to "open with" IE. That is when everything changed to IE.

I went back to the screen to choose what to "open with" for the solitaire game. This time I chose to open with Solitaire. Even though I unchecked the box that says "use this for all programs" it used it for all programs. So then everything had the solitaire icon and if I clicked on anything, a game would open, then the browser would open and a download would begin.

I tried to fix each program by manually choosing the matching program in the "open with" screen, but it just didn't work. Every time it changed all the programs, rather than just the one I wanted.

Also, even when I chose "open with" IE for IE, IE wouldn't work. Browser window pops open, then begins a download.

Does this sound like a virus that anyone has heard of?

Try running an anti virus scan before windows starts using this tool. Windows Defender Offline