Programs cant save files- help (vista home premium x64)

windows vista home premium x64

It just started when I suddenly could not open windows media player and internet explorer- I thought nothing of it since I dont really use those programs- until I opened adobe flash and attempted to save a project- I clicked save as then the window just popped up and closed by itself (all in a matter of a fraction of a second). I tried it in some of my other programs (zbrush) same thing happened.

Its very hard to troubleshoot since it doesn't happen to adobe photoshop or maya (I can still save). I tried sfc and chkdsk and they dont detect any apparent errors. No one else seems to have any idea what it is. They keep telling me to reinstall windows vista but I just cant afford something that drastic when theres a deadline looming. Any help would be much appreciated.

I dont know if these could be related to the problem:

utorrent- (I right click to open containing folder and it says Class not registered a few seconds later the folder opens anyway)

Yahoo messnger - (I click on a link in the news section pop-up it shows up a "catastrophic failure")

Firefox- I rightclick on an image and select save as- nothing happens.
same thing with facebook uploading photos I click browse and nothing happens



ANY help or insight would be appreciated. i will give you my first born.

First make a full anti virus scan
Download and make a full scan with malwarebytes
if all are negative
try to reset exe and lnk associations
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/233243-default-file-type-associations-restore.html
If that does not work try to go back to good times with a system restore
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html

I installed malwarebytes and this showed up during installation:

CoCreateInstance failed; code 0x80040154
Class is not registered

the program still runs though. Scanning now.

scanned, found the malware and had it removed- still a no go. Adobe flash and Zbrush still could not save files.

default file type restore didnt work either.

Tried system restore and the problem is still there. I guess it didnt go back far enough.

I managed to figure out when it all started though. It was when internet explorer and windows media player stopped working. I dont know what the relationship is but that's the only connection i could think of.