WinXP is acting strange

[JamesMW2]

I loaded Windows XP Home Edition, SP1 onto this machine yesterday.

It has been working fine right up until today..
This problem started after I downloaded a bunch of updates from windows as far as I can tell.

Right clicking on start button and hitting "Search" no longer does anything. I see an hourglass and then that's it.
Disk defrag no longer works. I click analyze or even defrag with my drive selected, and it does nothing. I can bring up the task manager and it shows another defrag process but nothing comes up on screen.
Clicking windows update on start menu no longer brings up an internet explorer window. Once again it just sits there.
If I right click on a link in IE now, and hit "Open in new window" it does nothing at all.

I'm betting there are more programs that are doing this but I just haven't noticed them yet.
Does anyone know how I can fix this or what could be causing it?
I even tried booting into safe mode with almost no processes running and the same thing happens.

[RenamonXP]

Try uninstalling some of the updates and post back to see if that solved the problem. If not then you may need to remove SP1 and try something else...

[JamesMW2]

Just noticed that Windows Update on the website isn't working either. I hit scan for updates and it just sits there with the progress meter flashing. If I try to close the window or leave it freezes and I have to kill the task.

Guess i'll try removing them all, I just hated to have to go through the downloading process for all of those again.

[Corky]

Use the Critical Updates site and burn them to CD since you're going to D/L them all again. That way you have them when you need them.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/...l/default.mspx

Another thing, and I know it's a lot of work, reboot after installing a few of the updates. I've always done this and haven't had a problem.

[RenamonXP]

You dont have to download them all again they are already saved to a folder on your C:\ drive or where ever your OS is installed in a folder called WUtemp sometimes hidden! Check there