I personally always think a format should be the last ditch. Besides, if he cannot get into safe mode, it would not be easy to do a backup.

Out of curiosity, you would not happen to have the file C:\Explorer.exe existing?

Also, do you have an updated virus scan (read: within the past month) that you have used recently? If you have it reasonably updated (say August 2003 or sooner) please post the last update date and do a scan in MSDOS. I doubt this is your problem, but having executables crash like this may signify corruption, which is a common ailment of file infector viruses which are becoming increasingly more common through P2P programs.

~ Traft