I tried downloading internet explorer 8 and it will not let me, the run box doesn't even show up and when I click the link it does nothing. Also tried downloading the active x control and it does the same thing... what do I do?

How old is your machine? Do you have an ISP? (If you posted this from your own machine, then that answers that question.) Do you have administrator privileges on your machine? This is usually required in order to download software. How does your machine function otherwise? A little more info would be helpful.

Not sure how old it is. I did post from my own machine. Has windows xp and I am the administrator on the machine. Seems to run very slow also. Even the internet.

Is your internet dial-up or broadband? Try running disk cleanup followed by disk defragmenter. These are located under Accessories in your Windows menu. It will take a while, particularly if you've never done it before. In each case you want to clean up and defragment your C drive which is your hard drive. If that doesn't help then speak with a computer technician. Also, make sure your administrator settings allow you to download software ; make sure you haven't unwittingly set your machine to not allow downloads.