I just hit this exact same problem. I had been using Vista RC1 5600 for
about a week, worked fine, and suddenly I turn on the computer this morning
and I get this endless loop of "Windows Explorer has stopped working". All I
can do it close.

I can launch IE and my networking works too. However I cannot launch
explorer.exe, even from the task mamager or the dos box.

I tried to upgrade from the Vista DVD, but the upgrade failed and Put me
back into the same situation.

The funny thing is that I remember turning on Backup. So I go to restore
the backup. just to not find any respore points at all.

It is at a point that I cannot use this computer any more. Has anyone
else seen this problem? How do I fix this? I can still use IE and can surf
the net. Can someone point me to a possible fix?

Thanks in advance,
HV
------------------------

"Norm Grace" wrote:
[color=blue]
> I just did a clean install of RC1 (5600). After I enter my password at the
> logon screen and the "Preparing Desktop" screen goes away I get a popup
> stating "Windows Explorer has stopped working." I click the "Close" button
> which is the only option, and after a few seconds I get another popup stating
> "Search host protocol has stopped." I click "Close" again and after a few
> seconds the same popup reappears. This continues in a loop and Vista never
> loads the desktop. I tried repair and reinstall and nothing works. I
> previously had Beta 2 installed with no problems.
>
> Anyone know what the problem is?
> --
> Norm G[/color]