Specs to put things in context: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ @ 1987 MHz / 2 x 512MB PC3200 DDR RAM / WD 160GB IDE HDD / 3DFuzion 128MB GeForce 6200 AGP 4x / FIC AM37 / Windows XP SP3

Just recently, I was unable to start Windows Media Player. I clicked it and the busy cursor came up, but then nothing happened. Also, I tried doing a search for a file, and same thing. It would show busy cursor then suddenly stop doing anything. I couldn't find it in the Processes of the Task Manager. (Perhaps I don't know what I'm looking for?)

Also, I was trying to update my DirectX, which has been running something older than DX9 9.0c for a while now, except the installation fails due to "internal error".

I think the failed DirectX installation has been like that for a while... (I remember trying to install DX9 9.0c a while back, but still failed.) The Windows programs not starting, I don't think I've ever had before... what could be the cause of these problems?!

Thanks in advance. =)

EDIT1: Weird thing now is that when I try to open User Accounts, I get a message saying "Wrong number of arguments or invalid property assignment." Also, when I'm trying to open services.msc, I'm getting a script error that says that "Library not registered." (Code: 0, URL: res://C:\WINDOWS\System32\mmcndmgr.dll/views.htm) Perhaps this is related to my other question, where I seemed to have an unregistered library of some sort.

EDIT2: The DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer freakishly worked and updated successfully. Now, I have focussed the question on the bigger problem. For WMP11, H&S, and Search, I click it once, get a busy icon for a second, and then nothing happens. Refer to EDIT1 for other problems.

EDIT3: Seems that my problems may be related to some Internet Explorer Script Errors. So what I did was download the IE8 installer from the Microsoft website, but when I run it and get to the main portion of the installer, it just keeps looping on the Downloading step of the installation. The installer is still running, but I left it for at least 4 hours and the downloading step was still not finished. What is the problem? Also, I uninstalled Ubuntu 9.10 after these problems, but they still remain.

EDIT4: I'm getting an active desktop recovery background on startup now. And within seconds my computer hangs again. EDIT3 explains main issue though.