Ok, I'm just happy I was able to get onto this website. Just to start off, I have Windows Vista Home Premium. So basically, a day or two ago I started getting an error message saying that "Host Process for Windows Services has stopped working". When I clicked "Check online for solutions" it wouldn't connect me to the Internet and said the page couldn't be displayed every time I tried. I just clicked ok and everything was fine, a little slow, but fine. But yesterday, everything fell apart. I don't know if any of this is related, but here's what has happened:

-My computer was really slow yesteday morning and still today. When I tried to type stuff (particularly on the Internet), only a few letters show up because it's really lagging I guess and I have to type Sooooo SLOOOWLY
-I started getting the host error message and my computer kept freezing
-After the message, my computer goes black and my taskbar at the bottom of the screen gets weird and now it looks different. It looks older and its white and the time doesn't display. It also sometimes disappears completely until I restart. My internet is the same -- it looks like an older version
-Most annoying problem: When I go on the internet, random ads pop up in the middle of me doing something (this never happens -- my computer has so much anti-virus stuff and anti-spyware, I've never had a problem! My dad's a computer guy so he keeps it up-to-date. I know I should ask him to fix this but he's very busy and getting older and I don't want to stress him out). Anyway, when I type something into google and click on a link, it takes me to some totally different advertisement page that sometimes tries to imitate the same topic I searched for! So frustrating! Also, when I try to go to the microsoft webpage for help, it says Internet Explorer can't display the site .. it doesn't redirect me like it does with other sites; it just won't let me on microsoft.

I've tried everything! I did all my McAfee Scans, I did my Spybot Search and Destroy Scan and Repair, I even downloaded 2 other malware protector programs and did a scan but the problem persists. I've tried downloading updates, but it won't let me because my computer won't connect to the microsoft site. I've googled for help and tried to get advice, but I'm not sure of the problem and most of the time my internet takes me to some random site and I can't get help. I was thinking maybe I installed a bad update, but I don't think so because my last installation was almost a week ago, and this only started intensely yesterday morning. I'm guessing it's a virus or spyware/malware?! I don't know! Should I go back to a restore point? Start it up in Safe Mode?

I went into my event log in the control panel to see what was going on, and it looks like there's an error with the Msi Installer but I don't know what to do from there. I don't even know if the host error is related to my internet problems or not. Here are a few of the details that come with the Host error message:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: svchost.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6001.18000

I hope I provided enough details, but just let me know if you need any more. Someone please help! THANK YOU!