I used to be able to get in to IE easier so why does it take 2-3 try now?

Also getting out hard? When I cant close I hit ctrl,alt del and end now does not work, I have to manually shut down

using XP, not running any extra programs, always cleaning disk space and using ad-aware

Any hope / help?
thanks,
Karl

How to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP

You may also want to run HijackThis as these are symptoms of malware issues.

please follow owen's Instructions and then post your log in the Spyware, Adware, Viruses and HijackThis Logs section.