Sorry if this isn't posted in the correct forum. I'm not sure it's a 'security' issue, but I'm at a loss as to what to do.

I am running Windows XP Home Edition. Yesterday I went through and cleaned out unnecesary programs and files. I didn't delete anything from any hidden folders.
I use Nortons System Works 2002 and ran windoctor and diskdoctor to fix any possible problems, then did a defrag on my hard drive.
After all that was finished I encountered my current problems.

There is a copy of the recycle bin that I cannot delete. All it's contents are the same as the original, anything I delet appears in both of them but each must be emptied seperately. I cannot rename it or remove it.

I can connect to the internet and browse with IE, but any secondary programs are having problems.
-Neither MSN nor Trillian will allow me to connect.
-Trying to Download with GetRight says: Error connecting to: Socket Error: Connection refused.
-Windows Media player's media guide will only show as 'The page cannot be displayed'
-mIRC = 'Unable to connect to IRC server'

I've tried doing a system restore and it won't let me restore.
I've searched the Norton Protected Recycle bin (both of them) for any important files I may have inadvertantly deleted and neither I nor windoctor found any.
I've checked my Internet connection settings to make sure everything is as it should be
I've even tried doing a recovery install of XP.

I'm out of ideas. Help?

Oops...couple issues I forgot to mention.
I had a program I was trying called Virus MD, it was supposed to be a virewall/virus alert program. I didn't like it and uninstalled it after about two days.
After uninstalling I started receiving warnings in my application event viewer:
"The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( True Vector Engine ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer."

I've also had trouble connecting to this site, with an error that says:
Warning: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (111) in /data/httpd1/htdocs/admin/db_mysql.php on line 42

Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (111) in /data/httpd1/htdocs/admin/db_mysql.php on line 42
(I'm unsure as to if this is my problem, or a database problem for the site)

Thanks again.