The title says it all: I booted up the computer this morning and shortly was met with a "You must restart the computer to use the updates. Restart now? Restart later?" dialog box. Well, when I gave up and let it restart (it kept popping up every two minutes or so), it came back with some kind of "Who the ____ are you" type error message when I clicked on my identity. First it said it couldn't open my identity settings, and then, when I got past that, it went to the Desktop, only two-thirds of the icons and all the folders were gone. The files are still there (I went in through "My Computer"), but the Desktop has been decimated and several of the startup program icons are also missing. Plus, my pen mouse, which usually works once I open my identity, doesn't work at all now. Any thoughts?1 person needs an answerI do too

And here's the worst part: I just saw that IE7 has been installed, all my favorites are gone, AND Microsoft Outlook has replaced Outlook Express as my email handler. Worse yet, all my email accounts are wiped clean from both OE and MO. The Address Book is intact, but the Inbox, Ooutbox and other folders are empty. WHAT THE BLAZES!!?!

first thing a full av scan to see if a virus is causing prob. if all good, try a system restore back to when all was ok..

How do I do a "system restore"?