None of the new programs I am trying to install will fully install. This first happened with limewire, it gets halfway through and stops and brings up an "installing java ...." message and stops. This has also happened to me when I tried to install the new firefox, IE 7, and my AVG free wont download the new virus database. Bearshare(P2p file sharing) downloaded fine but when i try to register it stops. this has prevented me for installing any new programs. installed fine any help on fixing this would be nice, and please keep it simple, I know more about computers than some people but am still relativly a Newb.

in your case of a completely hosed system you need to first download and use AdawareSe and Spybot Search & Destroy, install them, update them and use them....they may be able to repair your obviously corrupt system...if not, then if you have system restore activated, roll back to a previous point in time when the system was 'good'...if that fails I guess just backup your data, reformat the drive and do a completely clean install of the OS and start all over again....

how would I preform a rollback?

please read this article and follow the appropriate links inside of it...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...w_03may19.mspx

I have system restore disabled, and usually solve such drastic issues by backing up data and doing a clean install of the OS and starting all over again as opposed to risking continued corruption