xfce crashes on startup

[newbie]

i tried to post this earlier in the week but did not get any responses, so i'm hoping this time someone will offer some help.  if i'm missing something or breaking protocol i would appreciate a heads up.

i'm new to linux and just installed slackware 9.1 as a guest operating system in vmware workstation 4.0.0 build 4460. i would like to use xfce 4.0.3.1 as my window manager but when i switch to it and try to launch an x session i get the following "Crash occured in the Panel".   all i can do at that point is reboot, xfce is the only window manager i can not get working.  any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
rich

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