I think it is a bug in Windows 2000, or a messed up driver that windows has for your printer. I am having a similar problem. My local printer is an HP Deskjst 560C. When I right-click on printer properties on both the local and network printers, my desktop screen resets and I don't get the properties I'm looking for. I took off active desktop, and it still happens. I am currently downloading Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 to see if they have a fix for it. My computer does not crash. I can still access other programs. Sometimes I need to restore my active desktop. My printer will print a test page fine, but my printouts from programs like Excel come out printing light. It may be a related problem or something different. Anyways, I'd like to know if anyone else has a similar problem.

If you are using Novel client 4.7x try removing the NDPS client. It worked for me, hope it does for you.