I can't access my programs. A virus stops them.

I recently received a letter in my Hotmail junk mail informing me that something that I am supposed to have ordered had been shiped and my credit card had been billed. There was a place I was to click if I wanted to see what it was all about. Well I clicked it as I had not ordered anything. Now if I click on a shortcut on my desktop nothing happens and also on my  program list. I am useing windows 2000. Is there anyway to fix this without formating my hard drive?

I'd boot into safe mode and scan for viruses.  Are you able to get out to the internet?

You can also try if Ad-aware or Spybot Search & Destroy will help you.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ - Ad-aware 6.0 - Free Trial

http://www.safer-networking.org/ - Spybot S&D - Freeware