Hey mate,
Do you remember possibly what you did that might have caused the problem?
Because you had AVG previously, I would recommend going to their website (
http://www.avg.com/us-en/utilities) and downloading their removal tool. scroll down, and select either the 32 bit or 64 bit version, and I believe it depends on your OS. To find out which type of OS you have, you can run this tool, which will tell you:
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums - consequently, you can click on
My System Specs at the bottom of any of your posts on this forum, and select the link to update your system specs so that everyone who is helping you can know more about your computer to give better advice. Using that tool enables you to select any specific part of your computer to find out more about the OS and the hardware it is installed on. You will not see it again if you close out of it, unless you rerun it.
I would recommend against the use of any program that has the potential to give you PUPs/viruses/malware (bitorrent or any such peer-to-peer file sharing). That is basically just asking for someone to mess with your computer. Also, I do not use start menu 8, so I cannot confirm if it has the potential to cause any trouble, especially after, say, a windows update. However, windows updates are very important to keep going, so make sure they are all up to date.
As an FYI, you can 'screenshot' by pressing the Print Screen key on your keyboard, and using a program like paint to paste to. additionally, the snipping tool will 'snip' any part of your screen as needed.
To Restore File Extension Associations to Default
Follow this tutorial:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8486-default-file-associations-restore-windows-8-a.html
Restore File Explorer to Default
Go to > Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Default Programs > and click file explorer, and set it as default
Update Drivers
Go to your computer manufacturer and update all drivers to their newest version. I cannot pinpoint you to the website until you give me more info on your computer (or rather, update your specs on this forum)
Remove older versions of java
Removal using their tool:
Java Uninstall Tool
More to come later... let me know if you get through this bit