Its a conflict between MSN messanger and IE . Related to DCOM. There are a few workarounds, such as disabling DCOM or ActiveX, but neither of these is recommended. Best bet, Download Firefox Mozilla and just use it to check hotmail. Or if you don't use MSN messanger uninstall it.
http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/w...um/121926.html
there's a link to a thread where its explained a bit clearer