Setting up a brand new Dell Optiplex 980 with Windows XP SP3, and everything started up fine on the first boot. My first task was to install system updates, including IE8 and WGA.

After the required reboot after installing updates, I now get this error message:

Explorer.EXE Ordinal not found.

The ordinal 423 could not be located in the dynamic link library urlmon.dll

Per my cursory Google search, this forum thread places the blame squarely on IE8. The solution provided is to enter safe mode and remove IE8. Unfortunately, when I press F8 to choose to boot safe mode, I only have the option of "Windows XP SP3 Professional" and no safe mode options. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

FYI, I can get to the Windows Task Manager by holding down Control-Alt-Delete, but programs don't seem to run properly if you select them. I tried chatting with Dell Support, and we tried to initiate the system restore at c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, but that had a similar "ordinal 423 not found in urlmon.dll" error.