I usually report errors to Microsoft unless I know the cause. This morning I reported the Generic Host Process error and Microsoft's information page for the solution popped up on the screen.
My memory isn't great but I think I have looked for and tried solutions to this problem before.
Microsoft has issued a fix for this error that I would occasionally get on start-up.
Update for Windows XP (KB894391)
go to:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx?SGD=41f2a91e-3b13-4277-bef0-5425e9fee7d0&SID=1501

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