Unknown charachers in toolbar for windows xp

[omarlaomar]

i have a number of issues and was wondering if anyone would have ideas.
Here is my situation:
When I right click on the (c) drive, the options of open and explore does not extist but instead there are strange characters come up. If I open any of those charachters the computer is not able to read it.
Also I have in Internet Explorer toolbars extra character but no function for this.
The only way to open my (c) drive is from "search" and type file name.
I have been working on researhing these issues for 5 days now and just about did everything except what solves this - which must be some magic.
Even talked with comp. experts on the phone to no use.
Thanks for any response in advance.
p.s. what is a tag?

 

[Achilles_ny]

Have you eliminated the possibility of Malware? Try downloading and running Superantispyware and do a full system check.

 

[Bobbye]

Mistake #1:

If I open any of those charachters the computer is not able to read it.

Mistake #2:

I have in Internet Explorer toolbars extra character but no function for this.

#3 Unknown:

I have been working on researhing these issues for 5 days now

What have you done in these 5 days.
#4 Strange:

Even talked with comp. experts on the phone to no use.

The tech can only work with the information given- just like us.
#5 Question:

What is a tag?

Computing- Wiki
* TAG (BBS), a DOS-based bulletin board system software program
* Tag (metadata), a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information
* Tag system, a deterministic computational model
* Electronic tagging, a form of non-surreptitious surveillance
* Revision tag, a textual label associated with a specific revision of a project
* HTML tag, part of an Hypertext Markup Language document

Why?

Tell us please in all the things you've done:
1. Did you right click> Properties on any of these 'strange things' to see if you could find more information? The right click does not open anything. Opening anything unknown allows the possibility of releasing any code into your system.
2. Tell us what security program you have. Tell us if you've updated and scanned with each of them- should be one AV program and at least 2 spyware/adware programs.
3. Tell us if these "strange characters" you see appear to be machine language or a foreign language.
4. Tell us what you did before this behavior began- did you update something> What? Did you install something> what?
5. Give us your system specs, to include make, model, processor (mainly Intel or AMD), RAM.

Then maybe we can help.