So I installed Vista again doing a clean install with no activation key, and then *again* as an upgrade because all I have is an upgrade license (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic79855.html).

I loaded up one of the projects with source control on it that was crashing and it loaded up!  Awesome!  So I installed Office 2007 and started down the long road of recustomizing my PC and then went to bed happy.

This morning, after rebooting, I loaded up the project again and I got the dreaded crash:

So I'm going to try Virtual PC 2007, to run a copy of Windows XP and install Visual Studio on it.  If that works, I'll keep my normal VS installed and wait for any future service packs that may resolve the problem.

If it doesn't, then I shall dejectedly reinstall Windows XP.