Windows didn't want to boot up...

I had to restart my computer because i tried to run nero.exe and it just decided not to display itself. I looked in the task manager and it was running the process. So anyway, i restarted my comp to see if this would solve the problem. I got past the log-on screen and then my comp just sat there. Nothing but my background came on the screen. I opened up task manager and it showed 12 or so processes running. I restarted again unable to find out what could possibly make my comp act that way. It did the same thing until I booted in safe mode and did a system restore to yesterday. My computer has been acting a bit funny, but I've ran antivir and ad-aware. Nothin specific comes up. Has anyone else ran across a similar problem like this. Any suggestions?

I'm using windows xp, on a dell Optiplex GX150 @ 1ghz -  192mb ram.
also using Aston desktop which is a shell replacement, dunno if that matters.

Recommended first step here is to check and replace any system files that may have become corrupted or replaced by other versions. Open command window and enter:

sfc /purgecache

...then...

sfc /scannow

You may find you need your installation CD.

Of course, this may not be the source of the problem - it could just as easily be a hardware problem, but a completely clean installation to prove/disprove this is a bit drastic for a first step.

Format

I've had this same problem, what happens is Nero starts an imagedrive, but assigns it a drive letter Windows wants to use for some real drive. I 'fixed' it by simply reinstalling Windows, though you might try booting into safemode and deleting Nero.