Try restarting your computer in safe mode.
1) Click on start
2) Select the option like you're turning off your computer, but click restart. This will restart Windows w/out turning off your computer
3) As soon as the screen goes black, start hitting the F8 key about once per second till you see a screen that has what looks like a lot of technical stuff
4) Find the option that says "safe mode with networking", highlight it & hit enter on your keyboard
5) When your computer boots back up, a window telling you you're in safe mode & asking if you want to continue will come up~click yes or okay
6) Once your desktop comes back up, it will be in black & white, any text will be bigger, and you'll see "safe mode" in all 4 corners
7) Try to open IE & surf to a couple of sites
8) If you can get onto IE & surf w/out any problems, there's a good chance you might have a virus. I recommend taking your computer in & have it looked at/checked out if that's the case
If you CAN'T connect to IE/surf in safe mode, try going to internet options on your control panel. Do the following:
1) On the general tab, clear your cache/cookies/files. It will say one of 2 things~2 little boxes that say "delete cookies" & "delete files", or it will have a "delete" box where it says browsing history. If it's the former, click each one. If it's the latter, click "delete"~another screen will come up. Either click "delete all" if the option is there (bottom of that screen), or check all boxes then click delete
2) Next, go to the next tab that says "security". At the bottom you'll see a box that says either "default level" or "reset all zones to default level". Whichever one is there, click it (if it's not grayed out), then click apply
3) Next tab to click on is "privacy". There will be 4 boxes about the middle of the window. The last one on the right says "default". Most times this is grayed out, but if it's not, click on it, then click apply
4) The "connection" tab is next. Click on that & look to see if there's anything in the little white box under the heading "dial up & virtual private network settings". If there is, click on each one in turn & then click remove. Make sure the radio button that says "never dial a connection" has a dot in it. More than likely, it will~and will be grayed out~that's fine. Click on "lan settings"~make sure the only box checked on the screen that comes up is "automatically detect settings", then click ok
5) Last tab to click on is "advanced". Don't worry about anything that's IN the box under the word "settings". Look for a box under that near the bottom that says either "restore advanced settings" or "restore defaults". Click on that, click apply, then okay. This will take you back to your control panel...close that out
Once you're back to your desktop, restart your computer & let it boot back up in regular mode. Open IE & try to surf again. If it's still not working for you, when the IE page opens (even if it says "page can't be displayed"), click on "help" at the top, then "about IE". If you have IE 8, go to microsoft.com & uninstall it. Your IE will revert back to IE 7. IE 8 still has some bugs in it that can cause problems. If for some reason it won't let you get to the microsoft website (or anywhere else), definitely take your computer in to get it looked at.
Something else you can try to get onto IE~click on start, then run. If you don't have a "run" option on your start menu, look on your keyboard. There's a key on either side of your space bar that has the little Windows flag/symbol on it. Hold that down & press the letter "r" ONE time, then let up on the Windows key. A little box will pop up. In the space where it says "open", clear it out if there's anything in it, then type iexplore yahoo.com & click ok. Hopefully the yahoo.com home page will come up. Also, you can type iexplore _____ (whatever you want~for example: iexplore microsoft.com or iexplore google.com) into the open box if you don't want to go to yahoo.com. Just make sure you put a space between the "iexplore" &" _____.com" (lol...no quotes) when you type it into the "open" box tho, k?
You can do all the stuff on the control panel that I suggested either before or after you try safe mode~it doesn't make a difference either way. Just be sure you open IE & try to surf after you do.
I don't know if any of this will help, but hopefully it will. If none of it helps & you can't open/surf on IE, the only other options I can think of are to either call Microsoft and/or have your computer looked at. Good luck!