wupdater.exe and other problems

About a week ago, when I started my computer (Inspiron 8500), I noticed that I could not use the start menu of Windows XP Home Edition. This was because the hourglass icon appeared there (and nowhere else). I finally discovered that I could somewhat resolve the problem by pressing Control-Alt-Delete and ending the process called "wupdater.exe" This makes the start menu function reasonably well until I start the computer again. It is still problematic, though, because, oftentimes, I find that, when I click on the Start menu or when I'm browsing through it, I experience a 5-7 second delay that my computer did not do before.


In addition, when I try to start "Internet Explorer," I get an error message that says
"Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience"
When I investigate the problem further, I find this:
"The following files will be included in this error report:
C:\DOCUME~1\Mike\LOCALS~1\TEMP\WER15.tmp.dir00\appcompat.txt"
I know that the internet itself works, because I have accessed several programs that use it.