this just started today.

when i enter from windows 95, after the little guy lands on the shore and it is about to go to the main menu, i get a: this program has performed an illegal opertation message. just a few hours ago, this didnt happen. is there any way i can fix it?

I cant help you but I think I know some people who can. Go here, go to their forums and then go to the colonization section. http://civgaming.net/

Actually there's just the Colonization 2 forum section at CGN. Still we've got an expert on Col1 there, his name his LandGrabber and he knows many bugs. He posts in this forum, too, once in a while.