I tried to turn off my new laptop, and couldn't get past the logging off message. I eventually got rid of it by taking out the batteries, but now I keep getting a 'Windows explorer has stopped working' and a 'Windows explorer is restarting' message. This has been happening for about 10 minutes now, with about 10 second intervals. I don't know what's happening, or what I should do. Any suggestions?? Thanks.

I think your best bet would be to do a system restore.

That happened to me, too. I don't know the cause, but you can get around it if you turn off User Account Control. Somehow that interferres with the internet. That's the direction I got from another computer help site, and it worked for me.