Hi, The appearance of all shortcuts on my desktop have changed suddenly except those that install with windows like my computer,briefcase. Winamp,messenger,notepad appearance has become something like a faded and scratched photo. All related applications are working fine..only appearanec of shortcuts has changed . restart/refresh did not help..monitor is fine.refresh rate is optimal..no other messages or strange behaviour. i dont have any anti-virus installed. please help thanks

No antivirus! Why? AVAST and AVG6 are both free. Is there any chance you have a firewall installed?

Since most anti-virus softwares are huge and tend to slow down the system i have not installed for some time now..i dont have any firewall either.I do use the net a lot and so far have no problems. Is this a virus problem or hardware or OS problem ? The screen background is fine..if i move the icon that distortion also moves..i mean to say that this distortion is with icons and not screen backgroud itself. Thanks for the info on AVAST and AVG6 i will try and get them..