what do you mean by that?

This may be the old "wowexec.exe" problem rearing its ugly head again. (Do a search on it for the details)
I had this problem a few years ago. You wouldn't happen to have an older scanner that uses TWAIN32 attached to your computer? If you have a 76KB file named TWAIN_32.DLL in your Windows/System32 folder then it is probably the culprit. Rename the TWAIN_32.DLL file to TWAIN_32.OLD and copy the twain_32.dll (46KB) from the C:\WINDOWS directory to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32.

Hope this solves the problem,

-Dan

If it's the "wow" problem then the cure is to modify the registry so it won't run.

Quote from an old post:-

1) Start Regedit and locate registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WOW.
2) Right Click on "wowcmdline" and choose "Modify"
3) Add a character, (I chose a ?), to the beginning of the string. This will keep wowexec.exe from loading but leaves the old value intact so you can easily revert back to the previous setting.

Mel

Wowexec.exe is a legitmate program and is sometimes needed for legacy 16-bit applications. (not many of us still run programs that old but you never know)

-Dan