Computer having trouble, most programs shut down?

Recently, most programs have been shutting down with the message saygin that the program needs to close and has shut down, we are sorry for the inconvenience... This happens with a bunch of them. Are there any known fixes for this, besides reinstalling the OS? The OS is windows XP Professional. If it help, the programs that have so far done this are explorer, IE, firefox, and Yahoo! Messanger. Please help me :D. AVG and Avast! do not pick anything up.

Computer having trouble, most programs shut down?nortan antivirus

I always format/reinstall when strange things like that happen. It is not a time consuming task if you are used to it. With some practice you should be able to get your entire system reset with all your applications installed in only a few hours.

Not only does it keep your system "clean" but it also helps keep you in the habit of backing up your important data.

When reformatting I suggest that you record *every* major step that you took so that next time you have a procedure to follow. This is especially useful to me when it comes to tweaking settings in various programs. Things like how to set up your desktop, start menu, and file explorer may be important for you to have in there at first but after a while you just end up memorizing all that.

Computer having trouble, most programs shut down?nortonantivirus

No not really your best bet is to do a virus scan an then unplug everything from the tower and keep it unplugged for 15 minutes and if that doesn't make a difference then you are going to have to reinstall the windows
have u tried adding more memory since these programs may be dumping out and causing it to error out.
Reinstall explorer and messenger, maybe try to run windows update first for explorer. Just reinstall explorer and re download messenger, do not reistall the OS at least not until you try those which are much easier. Otherwise, doing a system restore may be an option also before a recovery.