Bummer 0 Newbie Poster

All of a sudden this morning when I sat down to use internet explorer, I saw weird characters on my browser page. My desktop items had also changed. I don't know how to fix the internet explorer problem. The text is really small and it displays weird characters. For example instead of a minimize sign it's got a little 6. I'm including a link to a screenshot. If anyone knows what to do, your help is much appreciated. Thanks!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Bummer1002/tttttttttttttttttt.jpg

[IMG]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y10/Bummer1002/tttttttttttttttttt.jpg[/IMG]