possible virus activity: erased passwords

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Recently I have discovered that all my windows/i.e. stored passwords (via cookies I assume) were erased (so for example with this site’s forums I was not auto logged in) as well O.E. was asking me to type in my passwords for my email acounts.

Here’s what happened before this occurance: I downloaded and installed Google toolbar. I was about to download another program from downloads.com when suddenly at beggining of process my screen went black. I had to ctrl+alt+del to get back up and running.

Once I was up I did a scan with avast and then a scan with AdAware. Avast showed nothing, AdAware showed tracking cookies that I erased.
Then I went on the net and found that the forums I was suscribed to no longer logged me in auto or at least would not enter in my password once I entered in my username. Then I noticed O.E. didn’t seem to have my passwords either.

I was wondering what may cause my passwords to become erased. I am about to start another scan with avast this time deep scan with archives. I was just wondering if anybody here herd of passwords being erased.

P.S. My original username was “holiday” for these forums but due to the above + the fact that I forgot to update my email address to my new one I had to reregister.

2

It is a bad idea to store passwords on your system. Only place they should be is in your head. Have a look HERE

You removed the passwords for forums and such with AdAware.

Then I noticed O.E. didn't seem to have my passwords either.
OE or IE or both?
3

I had a look at your HERE tips, thanks. I guess what sent up a red flag for me was the unexpected crash I experienced noted above and that I was no longer auto logged in to many sites AND that O.E. was asking for my passwords again. So I thought some virus had gone and did an erase.

I checked my Microsoft password protected file in Win98 and all seemed to be there. At any rate I deleted a lot of obsolete passwords and reinitialized my current email accounts with new passwords. Things are back to normal again.

Thanks again.

*Edit: It seems that clearing out a lot of “junk” from the registry section that stores protected passwords has re-auto logged me back into some forum sites. Perhaps it was just a registry thing.