Hi Madmum

I don't know if this might help but give it a try

open your TASK MANAGER (alt+ctrl+delete) hold down alt + ctrl while pressing the delete button.

click on the APPLICATIONS and see if any program is running, if so click on the END TASK to terminate any program your not sure of.
Before doing so write down the name of the program so you can delete from your system later, please only end one task at a time checking your system each time to see which program caused the problem.

If there is no program running or after ending all programs running the problem this still there, open your TASK MANAGER again and click on the PROCESSES and under the CPU you'll see every program that is running DO NOT END any program from this just write down every program and post the results in the reply post for me or other people to check. All programs running will look like 01 or over any looking like 00 are not running so don't write them down.

While in your TASK MANAGER click on NEW TASK and see if you can open your folders though the BROWSER.

GO LUCK
wizliz.