Restore points:
Somewhere in your control panel or help area (on an HP/compac it is called Help and Support and is a desktop icon) In there look for system restore points and hope there is a fairly recent one. The system supposed sets them on some schedule and you can set them (I do before adding hardware/software). It will reset your programs to how they were on that date. therefore all programs installed after that date will need to be reinstalled (data/files remain untouched) and you should therefore lose the problem.