Sticky This if you want.
A few weeks back I posted a quickfix to bypass the "Zune has encountered an error and needs to close" and "Zune has stopped working" errors when you launch the software by running it compatibility mode for Windows 2000. Although this allowed you to start the program, it still bugged other things and the software still crashed when you sync'd podcasts, and would not allow you to visit the marketplace.
MS/The Zune Team and I have recently been working together and trying things and we have found a solution that works that lets you access everything without bugs, and works on all supported Zune operating systems.
Original post
here.
1.) Turn-off the compatibility mode for Zune if you had it on. This is essential here in order to verify the effectiveness of this.
2.) Follow the steps in the following KB Article
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929642 and although the KB article doesn't really mention this crash issue, it should address the problem.
Please be sure to note the possible consequences regarding content licenses mentioned in there. Also in step (d) Internet Explorer should be running as Administrator.
3.) After successfully performing all steps in the KB, try to start Zune again (with compatibility mode turned off).
This completly fixed it for me and now I fianlly get to see what I was missing.