My internet explorer would keep shutting it self down saying it had an illegal operation, but that stopped and now it will not close. If you click the X it just dings at you. The only way to close it is to use the ctl alt del. What is wrong? or what should i try?

Have you tried repairing it. Control panel/add,remove/Internet explorer, double click and the option to repair should come up.

It is not listed under add remove. I had to reinstall windows before because of a virus but i did not reformat the HD and when windows was installed the programs were there but it did not always recognize them. Then i got it too and the almost all of them are under that menu except IE.

Did you clean the machine of the virus? You may need to download Hijack this in my signature, follow the instructions and post the results in the spyware threads.

The virus is gone completely and tried to reinstall it but it still doesn't work.

Have you downloaded all the patches and critical updates for it?

No because the last time i tried that internet explorer was working fine, then i downloaded the update and it stipped working all together. So i avoid the updates. I know it is bad but i would rather not update. I don't think it is that.

Mozilla Firefox is a great alternative. You can transfer all you favorites etc.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

I use mozilla now because i like it a lot better i was just woundering if anyone has seen this problem before or if it is just windows sucks. Can't wait for the new Mac OS X Tiger to come out. It will blow windows away even farther. It is such a better OS.

Unfortunately IE is so full of holes and bugs you wouldn't be the first with this problem. I use Slimbrowser and dont even allow IE access thru my firewall.
Sorry I couldn't be more help.