addick, this is a shot in the dark but I discovered a problem with a recent Flash Player update (I'm not sure which version exactly, it was one from within the past year I believe) that created an erroneous entry in the registry which caused visual problems with particular programs. Since your problem seems to be somehow connected to the web browser, I thought this could possibly be related.
Open up the registry editor and browse to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\
There should be 5 subkeys: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
If you see another entry before 0 which looks like a weird symbol (shaped like a capital L), delete that entry, reboot, and check to see if the problem is fixed. If everything looks normal, then this isn't the problem and you can disregard this.
