Solved smileys received not animated

Home Premoium SP2, IE9 RTM, Avast free Home Edition

Problem :

In the past, animated smileys sent to me via e-mails would show up animated.
Now they show up as still images.

Gif files are set to be opened by Internet Explorer as it has always been. I have checked and confirmed that just now.

This little guy should have been laughing and rolling on the floor when it showed up in my e-mail.

It is not.


Any solutions ?

Thank you.

Adding to my original post ......

I had done :

1. sfc /scannow .... no integrity violation.
2. Ran SpyBot S&D....... removed whatever it had found.

Please disreagrd my question.

Problem has been sorted.

Not exactly certain how I corrected the non-animated issue.
At leat one of the problems must be my internat options settings.
Internaet Options > Advanced > Reset.
Smileys came back to live.