None of us would list programs to disable at Start Up that would cause problems for you if disabled. These all can be run manually when you want them.
This info on Internet Explorer 7 from Microsoft Pages;
The default security settings for Internet Explorer 7 provide you with a high level of security, while still enabling access to the Internet. However, some sites might require you to change your security settings to a lower level.
This is more than likely the cause of your problems accessing sites and the like. This is probably where you are going to have to begin, and that would be adjusting the security levels of IE. By default, the security level in Internet Explorer for the Internet zone is set to Medium-High. This means that Internet Explorer puts certain restrictions in place to protect you when browsing the Internet. You might move it to Medium and see if this helps.