Windows XP Issues

My system has really starting acting weird. I can't open a document from within Word, however if I go to My Documents and Word folder and dbl click a document it opens just fine. The System Restore has not worked trying from 4 different restore points. Windows Explorer is not working properly. In Windows Task Manager under Processes all items show 00 under CPU. In Internet Explorer if I type something in the Address Bar it does nothing, however links and shortcuts work just fine of if I type like Microsoft and hold down Ctrl and hit Enter it will work. I guess I need lots of help. It looks like I may have found the fix for this myself. For anyone else that is having problems that I described just see if you have Windows XP Hot Fix KB908531 installed. If you do, remove it and it should correct the problems. You would think that Microsoft would have caught this. So much for quality control before a fix is released.

 

Information on why it does what it does and how to fix it in in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, You may experience problems in Windows Explorer or in the Windows shell after you install security update MS06-015.

As the article explains, the hotfix doesn't play well with some third-party software.

Information on why it's classified as a Critical Update is on this page.