IE acting weird? Is it a virus?

Ok recently my internet explorer has been acting weird every since my computer did it's horrible automatic updates and upgraded to IE 8. Now firefox is my primary internet provider and I wouldn't be worried but i decided to go on my IE because some of my old favorites were on there and all of my stuff was gone tool bar favorites everything. The only thing that is there is the box for me to type in a website. Also even wen i go to a website the blue tab at the top of the browser(sorry I don't know the exact name) is blank. So then i decided to pull up task manager n IE didn't even show up on there even though i clearly had it up and running this was kinda suspicious to me so i quickly closed it. I wouldn't be worried about this except all my friends(some who actually work with computers) are like i may have a virus. I have done multiple scans with mcafee as well as searched my computer my self and nothing came up.However Mcafee is notorious for missing virus expecially one's which actually in the long run end up disabling mcafee and cause me to have to get my entire computer rebuilt(which my dad would kill me if he has to do this again) so does anyone have any clue wats going on or how to fix it? Also someone also mentioned that I may have gotten hacked n that the IE is actually a fake browser for someone to obtain my pwords, credit info etc(but idk if this is actually tru)