"Com Initialization Failed" : Nod32 Virus

I downloaded Nod32 which is a virus protection program. I scanned my computer while I was asleep. The program cleaned my computer and everything worked fine. I use a program called xfire which is a messenger program kind of like MSN or AIM. A few hours after the scan was completed I tried to launch xfire. I got this error: "Com Initialization Failed" That is all that the error window says, and the window is simply titled "Error". Once I close the error window the program does show up in my task bar, however it seems to be slightly greyed out. When I right click its icon on the task bar the drop down menu comes up but is entirely blacked out. There is no text or anything it is all black. When i click something in the menu a new error comes up and kind of flashes on my screen, but has no text and not even a title. It is just a small blank window that flashes and then goes away. After that xfire disappears from my taskbar.

When I launch the program after the "Com initialization failed' error comes up and is closed, a strange box appears on my screen. I can only see it on my wallpaper, it doesn't show up on top of other programs. It is a white rectangle that is quite small. Maybe 120 x 40 and in the center of this rectangle is a very very small light blue square. To the left of the light blue square is a larger grey square. I have never seen an error like this before and have no idea what caused it. Other people on the xfire forums have had the same error, but I have tried all of the suggestions on those forums and nothing has worked. I assume nod32 changed something in my settings because xfire always worked prior to installing nod32. I did, however, uninstall nod32, and that did not fix the problem. And yes I am running as administrator.