Some Programs Won't Connect To Internet

[Caraway]

For a couple weeks, most of the programs on my computer won't connect to the internet. The ones I know of that aren't working are Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and iTunes. Programs that are working are Google Chrome, Windows Media Player, and FirstClass. I have Norton Internet Security, but it's off and I can't even open it. Windows Firewall is off too. Proxy servers are already disabled.

I've tried several different networks and a couple different routers. It's the same thing for all of them. I have another computer running Vista, and it's connected perfectly. My computer says it's connected, and it is, but it's just a few programs that aren't working. How do I fix this?

 

[kegobeer]

When was the last time you did a virus/malware scan?

 

[Caraway]

I had my hard drive replaced by HP a little while ago. My computer was completely reset and I haven't done a virus scan since then.

 

[kegobeer]

Are you running any anti-virus software?

 

[Caraway]

No. Norton Internet Security is turned off.

 

[kegobeer]

When you have some apps that can't connect (browsers) and internet security (anti-virus) that can't be opened, it's probable that you have at least one virus. The first thing I recommend is for you to make sure your Vista computer has anti-virus software up and running and is up to date, and then to do a complete virus scan (the one that takes a long time, not the quick scan). I prefer Microsoft Security Essentials over anything Norton makes, but that's just me. Then you should remove the drive from your 7 laptop and scan it from your Vista computer. If you find viruses, you can try to remove them but make sure you write down the names of the viruses so you can research them and make sure you completely remove them. If I find viruses I prefer to reinstall the OS, because I've seen way too many instances of operating systems being corrupted after the removal, but again that's just my personal preference.

There are other ways of scanning for viruses without removing the drive, but I just don't trust a corrupted OS to install anything.

 

[Caraway]

I backed up my files and did a virus scan with Windows Defender. It didn't find anything. I connected my laptop's hard drive to my Vista computer with a hard drive enclosure and did another scan with Windows Defender. This time, after about a minute, I got an error message saying, "Windows Defender encountered error: 0x800710dd. The operation identifier is not valid." Then I did a scan on Norton 360. It found several viruses on my Vista computer but none on my laptop's hard drive.