Google chrome is also a nice browser.
I have seen these issues many times with the internet explorer browser. Which is why the first thing you should do is download a third party browser like firefox, or chrome.
If you don't have anti-virus and wish to do a scan, trend micro has a free online scanner called house-call. you can find it here
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
CCleaner is a good program, however you do want to be careful that you don't remove anything important. Or disable critical start-up programs. But very useful when trying to remove trojan horses, ect.. that load during bootup.
Another thing you should try is to run windows in safe mode w/ networking. To do this reboot your computer and mash on the F8 key until a bunch of options pop up, select "load safe mode with networking".
this will run only the core dll files needed, preventing viruses ect from loading.
Once you are in safe mode, go ahead and load up Internet Explorer. try and create the same problem.. if it does not have the same result then it most likely a virus or some protection program preventing IE from working properly. If it does result in the same problem; you should backup your important data (documents, tax forms, ect..) and look into a wipe of the hard drive and re-installing windows.
If the problem doesn't occur in safe mode, go and download a 3rd party browser like firefox.. and use that instead. run house-call or download some of the programs that josiah had mentioned to try and combat whatever has infected your system. (if anything) again could just be a protection program keeping your notebook off the "internet" (like parental control software, etc.)
I hope you find this helpful,
DJ