debug error - Buffer overrun

I have a problem with windows Xp when i start the system up i have been getting the following messages.

Debug error!
c:\windows\explore.exe
A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the programs internal state the program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated.
(press retry to debug application)

Microsoft visual c++ debug library
c:\windows\explore.exe
A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the programs internal state the program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated.
(press retry to debug application)

I have pressed retry with no luck it just says this application has failed and must be terminated, i can still use the system but it is not right.when selecting internet explorer it takes several attempts to get it to open and during these attemps i get more messages windows explore has encountered problems send report or dont send report or something like that.

I don't want to format my hard drive if possable is there a fix out there?

what OS are you using? I know windows 2000 has some great repair software on the CD when you bootup of the CD..... Can try a repair.... What I personally would do is throw another master harddrive in there, copy over the files that I didn't want to delete then reformat the #@$@!!!!!!!!!!!

The first thing I see wrong here is that a file explore.exe should NOT exist as your explorer uses explorer.exe. (notice the extra r)

My first guess is to get to an antivirus site ( housecall.antivirus.com ) and get your self scanned ASAP. (BTW that link is a free scanner)

That would be my first guess to your problem with your IE crashing and your system not running 'right'.

After an antivirus scan and your system still does not work or IE keeps on crashing, you can try and do a system repair from the XP CD.

But to be 100% safe you should do a complete format.

Just to add...

You might want to run some spyware detection tools.

I personally use Ad-Aware ( Download )

I did a search for what explore.exe could be, and there were too many results to go through. So it would be best to run antivirus and spyware tools.