Dear Roger,
Your best bet is to reinstall windows, believe me, I tried everything.
Also, please lodge an "incident ticket" with ESRI. This is a serious and
ongoing problem that is not being addressed by ESRI.
I wasted a great deal of time trying everything else (nothing worked); an
incompatibility "somewhere" causes a problem with the registry - corrupting
it; that's my guess. I lodged a ticket with ESRI - they couldn't help me;
finally I reinstalled windows, which worked, but I am not convinced that it
will stay "fixed" for long; updates may cause a problem. Currently, I have
updates turned off.
Good luck.
Warmly,
rosemary
Software Engineer
Mountain View
CA 94040
Core strategist & Co-founder
*The Global March for Elephants and Rhinos
<http://march4elephantsandrhinos.org>*
<http://www.marchforelephants.org/> <http://march4elephantsandrhinos.org/>
<http://www.cannedlion.org>