I would start a new thread, but since this seems to be a related problem, I’ll carry on here for now.
As noted above, I uninstalled IE and installed the latest version, Version 7 I think it is. Also as noted, that did not solve my problem of not being able to write messages in Hotmail. But I use Mozilla now for Hotmail, and that works fine.
However, since installing the new IE, I have no more sound. 
The Audio icon disappeared from the taskbar, and when I go to Sounds and Audio Devices in my Control Panel and click the box that says to put it on the taskbar, I get a message that says it cannot do it because, “The Volume Control program has not been installed.” I went to Microsoft and found some sort of Volume Control to install – volume.exe I believe it was – but when I try to download it, it says it’s no longer available.
Sigh. Any suggestions?
Bumping this up in a last hope that someone can tell me how to find an Audio Control program to install. See post immediately above. The volume.exe link on Microsoft’s page seems to be dead.
Any chance you have your WinXP CD about? (I assume it’s XP and I ask since I don’t know if you got an actual copy of the install CD with your computer, or if they just gave you recovery disks.) There’s a file on there that should do the trick (sndvol32.exe): check this article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q319095 for the gory details.
<< Hit any user to continue. >>
No, we bought our computer fully loaded, and there were no disks. Will check that link out, though, and see what I can do. Thanks!
Double thanks! Just looked at that link, and that describes the problem exactly. I think I can get ahold of someone’s disk.
Thanks again. We’ve got out Audio back! I used my brother-in-law’s WinXP CD to follow the instructons in Nightsong’s link above. Audio is now back, and I can type Hotmail messages using Mozilla as a browser.