Task Manager Problem

Hi,

New to the boards, I have recently hit a new problem on my Windows Vista laptop. I cannot seem to open my task manager. It opens for about a second then shuts down again. Several problems have arisen since this appeared this morning on my computer;

1. The Task Manager situation as stated above.
2. When the computer starts up, I get a message telling me Internet Explorer has shut down (I don't use this browser anyway)
3. When I shut down a message comes up (I can never catch but it says something about terminating an application which won't shut down)

I think it is some sort of virus, or malicious software but am not sure.



Any help would be appreciated.