These problems have been occuring ever since yesterday afternoon.

I run on Windows 98 2nd edition

When I boot my computer, it will get to the desktop background picture, and then go into a blue screen. "Fatal exception 0E 0028:C02A20CC in VXD VWIN32(05) + 00000BF4"

Two things will either happen after I press enter.

1) My computer will load my taskbar, desptop icons, and proceed to run as normal

2) My cursor will be an hourglass and nothing will load - I will just see my desktop background picture.

During the times that I am succesfull in loading my computer, I notice "Explorer" is missing from the close programs dialog box.

Copy "explorer.exe" from the computer you are using and paste it into your C:/windows directory using a recovery console or DOS.

The computer I am using is the one with the problems. Copy explorer.exe from that one? Or from another computer?

From another. First really, check if it is there. In C:/Windows

Haven't messed with the registry any have you?

Have not messed with the registry.

I have both explorer.exe (computer icon) and explorer.scf (folder, mag glass icon) in c:\windows

What happens when you try to run explorer manually when your computer _does_ start up?

Replace your explorer.exe like i said then browse to this registry key by typing "regedit" in run.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

Once you have Winlogon highlighted double-click "shell" on the right hand side.
In it it should read "explorer.exe" if it does not, change it to that.

Actually do this in reverse. Check the registry key to see if it says "explorer.exe" first.

Also, all of the settings for explorer.exe are found in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
I don't think this will help much unless there is a setting in the settings for it that is causing it not to start.

When you run explorer.exe with Windows already running it loads "Windows Explorer". Yes, the same one in Start>Programs>Accessories.

I replaced explorer.exe - all it does is load the explorer when i start up (the box w/ the files and directories) it still does not show explorer on the close program dialog box.