Essexboy, i tried the Superantispyware free and it is great. Thanks for the tip.  Later, Breeze

   Essexboy,once again i would like to say thanks for the reply. you were definitely on the ball. a friend of mine told me to try AVGfree. i downloaded it , ran through the procedure and rebooted the system. like new again!
AVGfree found several   "trojan/ backdoor and some sort of backdoor/downloader  whatevers".  i have tried several different programs to detect virus and malware but they all came up short.  thanks so much for just wanting to help folks like me who are truly novices. there are not many things in this world that are free anymore,but to be able to find
the knowledge that is available here is astounding to say the least.  good work and great site!  later,  Breeze.

Essexboy, i forgot to mention that i do not have a windows disk. the system has a recovery partition?
later,    Breeze

ESSEXBOY, thanks for the reply. situation similar but have noticed that when i boot my machine the desktop and icons actually load and stay as they should until i click  to connect to the internet. then, poof they go through the flashing thing until they just stay gone. i've tried malicious software removal tool, windows 1 care(free), as well as defender. i am definitely a rookie so please translate to "HIGH-TECH REDNECK" if at all possible. would the above procedure still be recommended ? thanks again,      later   BREEZE

im running windows xp home. after startup the icons and taskbar disappear and a few seconds later they reappear only to stay for a few seconds and then go away again. it seems as they are almost  like in a slow flashing mode. this happens 8 -10 times and then they stay gone. the wallpaper is all i see on my deaktop.  i can access internet through task manager but i cannot open control panel. i also get a lot of  DEP to protect  my computer program closure messages. ive tried sys restore but only available points are after this problem occured.
 if it helps ,my machine is a - HP pavilion a1013w.    please  help! thanks BREEZE.