Maintenance :: Internet Explorer Has Stopped Working?

About two weeks ago I began to notice strange behavior on my PC which made me think it may be a virus. Some examples:

1. When I'm online a message window frequently appears stating "internet explorer has stopped working"

2. Some websites do not display adverts on the page. I've attached a screenshot from youtube to illustrate what I'm referring to.

3. Some webpages will not load. I keep seeing "webpage under maintenance at this time". This is typical for websites at certain times but to see it every time I try to access is suspicious.

4. I use Hotmail and typically the first time I start it up in the day I notice that the first email I open causes the entire page to go blank as if it erases everything on it, it then reopens with all of my emails listed and finally the email I began to read will reopen. This only happens after I boot my system and open the first email. This will not happen on any other computer.

5. I seem to be having issues installing certain programs. They won't install citing various reasons such as outdated files, incompatible etc. These were all working flawlessly prior to reformatting my system.

6. I'm unable to post messages even though I'm logged in. When I type a message I see the timer cycling but it never posts my messages, it's as if it's stuck in a loop or frozen.

Having felt that a system reformat was in order I did just that not more than a week ago. Everything was reinstalled and updated. Once all the Windows 8 files were installed I began to notice the exact same problems surfacing immediately. I'm currently using Win 8 with IE 10. 16 GB RAM, 64 bit OS. The computer itself is an HP and a year old.