Thank you for your responses, and sorry for the delay in coming back.
@ soms..........ta for the suggestion. Having reinstalled Windows and all the attendant re-installs of progs, drivers etc, I really do not want to go through all that again,especially as everything else on the machine is working so well.
I think I will just learn to live with it.
@OF............my internet explorer ( help-about IE) tells me that it is version 7, but it does not appear in the add/remove list, and when I go on to Microsoft to get my patches/updates it offers to dowload IE 7 and install.
That would seem to point to my IE being corrupted in some way.............and I am now not sure which version is installed.
However, whatever version it is, it is working normally although it is not my default browser (use Opera) and I only use it for updates, so can live with that also.
Thank you all for your time,help and support.........think I will leave well alone and forget the missing bits.