There are many different error codes for all kinds of Windows errors. It can be overwhelming trying to figure out what they all mean. There is a free utility called Error Messages for Windows that can help you translate those error codes into something that makes sense. Then you will have a better idea of what you will need to do to fix your the problem that is causing the error code.
Description taken from their website:
Error Messages for Windows is a small utility that will allow you to look up MS Windows error code numbers and display a descriptive message explaining what the numeric code actually means. If you have software programs that produce numeric error codes now you can find out what they really mean.
Error Messages for Windows also provides a facility to display and print all of the error codes and messages defined for your version of MS Windows.
Error Messages for Windows will run on Windows Vista and older versions of Windows. It should run fine on Windows 7 as well.
Download Error Messages for Windows from their website.