Hi snorro, I haven't heard any more about this issue so unfortunately I can't help. Might be some crazy bugs flooding the net that can't be found or stopped yet!

To reduce the annoyance, have you tried using a different browser i.e. Firefox? See if the problem is reproduced? Also have u checked Windows Knowledge Base, Support Forums, or Yahoo's Support Forums (not sure if they have one but usage of Yahoo! seems to be a common denominator in these problems.

Also another thing, have u tried uninstalling and re-installing IE? Also a System Restore might help, to the time before the problem began.

Thanks for the advice. The good news is: I seem to have solved my difficulties. The bad news is: I can't be of much help to others since my methodology was so low tech. I just dug into EVERYTHING for a couple of hours and deleted and shredded everything that I couldn't find an excuse for. Seems I got the culprit ... but I trashed so much junk that I have no idea what exactly it was.

That's fair enough, that's as good as any solution I think. Sometimes it just has to be back to basics. "Bin all unecessary stuff, leave your machine as clean as you would leave ur dishes, room, living room etc if you didn't want to catch any diseases" :-D