used free avast but no better
 

Thank you for my earlier assist. I downloaded, installed and did a full scan with Avast Free Download, most current edition.
Restarted and once I got to the desktop, all icons were there, the computer froze.
I had to restart by removing the battery. Then I tried again and I didn't even get to the desktop, just password input and frozen!
Any ideas? It starts in Safe mode no problem. My operating sys is XP.
Whatever I picked up came from a Canadian prescription drug site I was trying to get to.
Thanks so much.

when you boot windows normally, after login and no icons appear, see if you can launch the task manager.

although no desktop icons appear, press alt+ctrl+delete
then click on the task manager.

if you have the task manager running, then click on File , New Task, type explorer, click OK.

i hope this works :)