Windows Vista 7 only allows IE and nothing else internet related

[StressKillingMe]

Well ill be honest, im not the most tech savvy person around so bare with me.
Ill keept it simple, i just bought windows 7 home premium, downloaded it from microsofts website.
Everything seems to be working fine EXCEPT the fact that the only internet application that is being allowed to run is internet explorer 8, no messengers, not steam, not even any other browsers. It wont even download somethings, i have uninstalled and installed chrome and firefox and to no avail. I played around with the internet security settings, and my firewall, and user account control nothing seems to be working. and yes my windows 7 has been activated.

Basically it seems the only application permitted to use the internet is IE8

 

[Mitchell_A]

Hello, and welcome to the Windows 7 Forums.
Did you purchase and download an upgrade copy?

 

[StressKillingMe]

yes i definitely did

 

[Mitchell_A]

OK. When you did the installation, I assume you selected the "upgrade" option?

 

[StressKillingMe]

OK. When you did the installation, I assume you selected the "upgrade" option?

yes i did that too

 

[Mitchell_A]

OK, well I don't really want to have to tell you this, but that's likely the cause of your problem.
Backup all of your files and re-install Windows, this time selecting "Custom" install.
You'll need to read this to get it activated afterwards though
Perform clean install using Windows 7 upgrade | Tips | Smallvoid.com

Post back with results.

 

[Saltgrass]

What firewall are you running?

Did you update any anti-virus software to run in Win 7?

Have you tried resetting IE by going to tools, internet options, advanced and reset?

As was mentioned, a clean install is always best. When you do an inplace upgrade, what types of problems you may have depend on what software and drivers you were running before.

 

[StressKillingMe]

What firewall are you running?

Did you update any anti-virus software to run in Win 7?

Have you tried resetting IE by going to tools, internet options, advanced and reset?

As was mentioned, a clean install is always best. When you do an inplace upgrade, what types of problems you may have depend on what software and drivers you were running before.

I was using norton anti-virus gaming edition, which i am going to switch for kapersky most likely, according to norton it should still work for windows 7 via a liveupdate(i believe) however liveupdate isnt connecting to the internet