internet exlplorer browser is acting up

for example, i go to my user control panel but it does not update! i recieve email notifications that someone replied to a thread i started, but it will not view the replies. i have to input a reply in order to see past replies. this happens to another message forum as well. all settings are set to default and cookies are enabled. wth!?

this is for my laptop and not the rig in my sig below.

nevermind, i found out what the problem was!

i accidentally set internet explorer to never check for newer web pages for the ones i previously visited in settings, so it never updated.