Vista - explorer and taskbar won't open on startup. also, weird audio prob

Hi, all

I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to fix a weird problem
that just started happening to me today

When I boot up my computer, I do not get a desktop or a taskbar open on the
screen. I get an Explorer screen and that's it. I am able to open Task
Manager and, if I shut down Explorer.exe, the taskbar will open and
everything seems to work fine.

Also, I've been noticing of late that my sound card has been really choppy
of late, especially when playing any games (Star Trek Legacy, World of
Warcraft, Diablo 2, and a mass of others).

Windows has been activated on this machine. I'm running a Dell Inspiron XPS
M170, and it has a Sigmatel sound card, an Nvidia 7800 GTX Go video card
running the default Microsoft drivers, and 2 gigs of RAM (all Kingston, I
believe)

Any ideas?

--
Ken Gallagher
Networking Specialist - Engineering
Bell Canada