ie8 can't open attachments or save them

oHi,
all of a sudden, I cannot open to view a pdf, nor even save it when i'm in
Hotmail for instance. When i'm on a regular website, cannot open nor save
attachments in Office or PDf, I click o the link, it starts to save in the
lacation I asked, but there is never anything there...
I have a Dell Studio 1555, Vista Home edition, and really struggling also to
install software like avg free of charge version.
Thanks fo r you precison insights.
D