I followed the suggestion of checking the event viewer. The event viewer lead me to the m$ website and the m$ website lead me to the download. The rest is history.

I couldn't do a system restore because, quite honestly, I don't know when the problem started exactly. I had been letting it go on for a couple of months now.

Thanks for posting the links Reverend. I'm sure there are other ppl. out there with the same problem.

Merry Christmas (Seasons Greetings) to all of you!

Sincerely,
Han