The OS is Windows XP Professional and its a Compaq computer. I ended the explorer.exe process right before the error started happening but I've done that lots of times without having any problems. A very computer knowledgeable friend suggested that windows explorer may have been accessing the registry at the time and therefore the registry may have been corrupted.

Also, does anybody know what the microsoft tech support number is? I've looked all over the place but haven't been able to find it which seems kind of weird.