I cannot access 'my computer', 'my documents' or the control panel.
I can access the internet and office packages fine.
I have tried to do a system restore but get an error message saying that the restore was unsuccessful.
When I click on the 'my computer' icon (or any of the above) I get an egg timer, then the screen flickers but nothing opens and instead I get an error message saying that windows explorer encountered a problem and needs to close.
I have norton anti-virus which found a dial up trojan virus and deleted it but that has made no difference.
I have gone into safe mode and CAN access 'my computer' this way.
I have read on this forum about a virus and something to do with Hijackthis - can anyone help me and give me advice what to do - in laymens terms!!

Many thanks

You can get HijackThis from here:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread18768.html

To use hijackthis, unzip it into it's own permanent folder before fixing anything with it so that the backups it creates cannot be deleted accidentally (not a temporary folder, directly on the drive, or directly on the desktop -- in a folder on the desktop is fine).

Example:
Click My Computer, then C:\
In the menu bar, click File, New, Folder
That will create a folder named New Folder, which you can rename to "HJT" or "HijackThis." Now you have C:\HJT\ folder; put your HijackThis.exe there.

To use hijackthis, close all browser windows, double-click on hijackthis.exe, select Do a system scan and save a log file. The scan should only take a few moments then a window will pop up to let you name the file to save (or you can just leave the default). After you hit OK, the saved log will open up; copy the entire contents of the log and paste it into the Quick Reply box here.