Windows 8 explorer.exe keeps crashing and I can't use Windows update as a result!

I've got Windows 8 64-bit, and it's been running fine for about 2 months now. Just today, it's started to crash the desktop every 6 seconds. The screen goes purple (which I'm pretty sure is just my chosen background colour), the outline of the taskbar remains,

but all the icons disappear, and then everything returns, only to crash again in another 6 seconds. I've watched the task manager, and under &quotbackground processes&quot, an icon called &quotWindows Problem Reporting&quot appears for about a second,

and then goes away.

I've looked up some other people's questions about this, and most people seem to recommend checking for updates, or installing new graphics drivers, but this is not an option for me. Whenever the desktop crashes, it shuts down control panel as well. This

means I can't start my computer in safe mode, I can't check for updates, I can't uninstall/update drivers, I basically can't make any changes to my computer! Even as I'm writing this message, the cursor keeps disappearing from the test box whenever the desktop

crashes, and I have to click on the screen every 6 seconds. ARGH!

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