Problem launching IE8 and MS Powerpoint and Firefox on Win 7 PC

Hi - had a problem with some spyware, not a huge problem, just noticed some sluggishness and ran a scan and found a few infections, and cleaned them. Not that this is directly related to the spyware, or a result of cleaning the spyware, but every time I launch IE8 or Powerpoint, I get the message "Internet Explorer is not responding" or "Microsoft Powerpoint is not responding". These message come up almost imeediately. It appears as if each is going to launch, i will see it for a second, and then the message will appear. I also get a similar message with Firefox as well, only it just tells me that it has crashed. For each, i have tried the following:

Firefox - I have uninstalled/Reinstalled, attempted to go into safe mode (start-firefox -safe-mode) - still does the same thing, crashes.

IE8 - reinstalled, reset settings, still gets above message. This sems to be only with the 32 bit version installed, for some reason the 64 bit version on the same machine works fine.

Powerpoint - ran an MS Office repair - POwerpoint still crashes, all other office apps work fine.

Any help would be appreciated!