Very Weird Error

[mntamimi]

I just begun having a tough problem. When I try to launch internet explorer- nothing happens. Any attempt to open a folder from the desktop results in a slight freeze followed by a weird warning message on the desktop (not a system alert in a little pop up). This just begun this morning- it worked fine last night.
The warning message looks something like this:
"Active desktop recovery
Microsoft Windows has expereinced an unexpected error. As a precaution your active desktop has been turned off. To restore Active desktop use the following trouble shooting tips..."

I was not aware that I was using active desktop ( not sure what it is- but i thought i had it off).
I tried the trouble shooting tips but they did not seem to work.

Any help here would be very helpful. Thanks.

[Theoran]

Active Desktop is enhanced functionality on the desktop that is part of Internet Explorer 4.0 and higher and Windows 98. It enables Web pages to be turned into desktop items that are updated automatically. A Web page can also be turned into wallpaper, allowing a workgroup home page to be readily visible on each user's computer with links to related information on the intranet.

I would go to start / settings / control panel / add & remove programs / highlight Internet Explorer and click on the remove button / a window will pop up / select Repair and then click OK.

This will repair IE and hopefully fix your problem. If you don't have the option to repair IE then I would upgrade IE to IE 5.5 sp2 or IE 6.0

[mntamimi]

I have turned off Active Desktop- I am running win 2k pro.

Unfortunately, I can't try out your solution because I cant open a single folder wither from the desktop or from the start menu. Now I dont know anything, but dont the folders and IE use the same "something" so they kind of look alike. because so far other than that I cant find other problems (netscape and word both work).
Anyways as such, I cant open the control panel because it appears in that same explorer mode i suspect
thanks, Alex