edit:  reinstalled windows - resolved.

My PC just began acting weird.  Many of the exe (programs) i use don't respond to to clicking, even refuse to respond to rt ck -ruin as admin.  I get the endless blue circle (same-as old hourglass icon) saying PC is now busy - but ti never runs the program - sometimes ctrl-alt-delete permits me to end it, sometimes it won't.  It won't let me do a system restore (this is one of the exes that hangs up into forever circle.  Mal-ware anti bytes, win defender both find nothing.  Herd protect inaccessible - it gets the endless circle as well.  Researched on web - not much help unless it was endless loop while booting.  This is not case - although booting now takes  a lot longer.

i7 win 7 x64 home premium. 

The endless looping has been going on the entire time I have been making this post. Anyone familiar with the typical reasons/fixes for this behavior?  Appreciate it. 

 edit:  just tried re downloading herd protect, and first download of 'reason core security.'  Both installers hung up 3/4s way thru.  Dialogue box with big red 'x' read: 'error opening file for writing.' - even when clicking on installer as admin.

 edit: logged on w adm acct, tried sys restore: message: volumn shadow copy component unexpected errpr (c0r80042302) check app event log.  did do:  dependency server gruup disabled, no enabled service associated with it.

also a warning: custom dynamic libraries loading every app, check makes sure .yada.

 Only thing I can think that might have caused this is I just reinstalled Morrowind (10 year old game) , and it installed an old version of direct x. / net.   In the past, these versions have coexisted fine.  Might this be root? 

edit: booted safe mod, did system repair and windows repair.  Now, it won't let me boot win normally.  I do the f-8, and arrow down to start windows normally, and it goes safe mode anyway.  What am I doing wrong?

MS support worthless.  Wasted 3 hours there.