unable to download anything, email program keeps "sticking"

The problem began a couple weeks ago when I tried to download a file off of an unfamiliar website. The download in question never took place. It appeared to try, but seemed to put my computer into an endless loop of trying to download. I had to close IE from Task Manager after it locked up. The first problem I noticed after that was I was no longer able to open an attachment inside of Windows Live Mail, I had to move the file elsewhere to open it. And when deleting emails, as I have to do a lot, Live Mail keeps "sticking". It would delete a couple of them, then freeze up for about 20 seconds becoming unresponsive, then it would go ahead and delete.
And now when I try to download anything, including Microsoft upgrades, I get nothing. I can click on a download and everything appears normal. The little box opens asking Run, Save or Cancel. I click on Save, chose a target path, the download begins. I sit and watch as it downloads byte by byte. When the download finishes the little download window just disappears without giving me the options of Open, Open Folder or Close, even though that little box in the window for closing it when finished is NOT checked. Then when I go to the target folder for the download, there is nothing there. I have done a search of the entire hard drive and the file I just finished downloading is nowhere to be found.
I got some help on a site called Computer Help, and after I went through all of the steps of scannng and fixing, I was told there was no visible sign of malware.
So now I'm back to square one. Can anyone help, or will I have to do a complete system reinstall ?
FYI, my Windows restore feature was turned off, so I cannot use that options.
Please help. Thank you.

Download, update & run anti malware from malwarebytes.org

As I mentioned in my original post, I got some help on a website called Computer Help and one of the many things they had me do was to run MABM and many other scanner type programs. And their final conclusion was that I did not have any malware on my comuter.

Then run Hijack This or do a restore point.

HiJackThis is another one of the programs they had me run. And, once again I refer back to my original post. The restore feature was turned off on my computer so there is no restore point.

Who evaluated the Hijack This log? Is there a chance I could view it?

What, you want his name ? He was called evilfantasy on Computer Hope, that's all I can tell you. I believe I already deleted all of those log files. I could do another scan if you want.

If you want to run it again, I'll look at it. I'm not as sure as you are that the machine is clean.

Ok, I tried to post the log here and I got an error message saying I am not allowed to post external links. I don't know why it said that, but there it is. Now what do I do ?

Just copy & paste the log into the body of the post. It's done all the time.

That is what I tried, three times. It keeps giving me that error message.

I don't know what else to tell you. I have no other solutions.

Maybe you could tell me why it is giving me that error message ?

If I knew, I would tell you. You would have to ask the moderators.

Maybe you could tell me how to do that then. I am new to this forum stuff. Is there a certain place that I connect with them ?