I installed Vists Ultimate SP1 32 bit on a raw drive and this seemed OK (a little surprised that it did not require a full format as it does with XP) and had no problems installing Audio and a few other progams, but when I tried to sign in to Windows Messenger I got an immediate error panel "Windows has encountered a critical problem and will re-start automatically in one minute"

It re-starts but the panel is shown again so the computer is locked into a cycle. The only way out is to re-install from scratch. I have repeated this problem on 3 completely new installations on raw drives. Seemingly Vista 64 bit Ultimate has not suffered the same way.

I am at a loss to understand why this happens which is why I went through the complete re-installation twice more to ensure I was not dreaming.

Check the Application section of Event Viewer to see if there is any error relating to this.

No errors found. Have tried once again a re-intallation and nothing else and problem still exists.

TechNet has this issue, but they also say there are errors. Also only on Ultimate x32. Appears to be a malware service or rogue/corrupted (or likely poorly written) BHO you came across in your travels. Some say disabling a certain ActiveX control or service can help get rid of this error.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums...6-34b0330bfc5a/