PROGRAMS HANGING, WINDOWS UPDATE WONT RUN, ETC

I'm running Windows xp sp2, beta 7 and am having several problems. The most
crucial are that programs keep hanging on me .. not one in particular, it
just seems random, but happens 2 to 3 times an hour.

Another issue is that windows update won't open for me. I keep getting an
error: 0x80096001. When I run a search on this error number, I don't get any
search results. I've been in touch with microsoft a couple of times and they
gave me lenghthy self-repair instructions, but none of it works.

Any suggestions??

Thanks.

Sarah