hi spittb,
i'm not too sure of ur other problems but cool websearch is a known ad-ware that hijacks ur IE broswer.
spybot can detect but couldn't remove it totally.
The only program i know that can solve ur browser problem is a program call CWShredder. It is especially created to remove cool websearch.
my advice: download latest spybot and CWShredder and run them. Goggle for the CWShredder program.