Once every couple of days when I try to start programs on my computer (browsers, Notepad++, Visual Studio, etc), the hourglass comes up for a second as if the program is starting, and then nothing happens. No UI window opens for the program. And it does this for everything I try opening. I have System Internals Process Explorer as a Task Manager replacement--and even it wouldn't show up.
The first time this happened, I went to Start > Shut Down, and as it was shutting down, all of the UI windows suddenly popped open, one after another, and then closed as part of the normal shutdown process.
The only other way I have remedied it is to switch over to my wife's account and then switch back--but this only works sometimes.
On one occasion, I happened to have Process Explorer open while this was happening. It shows that the processes are starting up and running, but there's just no UI window.
This might be related to my recently installing SP3 for XP (in order to run Visual Studio 2010).
Any ideas?
