Startup errors

Question

I am running XP.  The computer boots OK, but when I first log on to my user ID, I get two pop up boxes.  The first displays a blue bar at the top, with a small white box in the upper left hand corner (and nothing else in the blue bar) - the text portion of the pop-up box shows a red X and the statement that 'Windows cannot find '                                                           '.  Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.  To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.   After I click OK on this one, I immediately get another pop-up box, this time with a bigger box in the blue bar, with the word 'Desktop'.  The text portion of the box shows a yellow Exclamation point, with the message 'Could not load or run '                                            ' specified in the registry.  Make sure the file exists or remove the reference to it in the registry.   I have searched in the registry for a bunch of consecutive spaces, but can't seem to find the thing that is causing this problem.  Has anyone seen this before, or know what it could be and how to get rid of it?  This behavior was not present in the system from the factory, but showed up at some point after loading various programs (I guess).  I can't tell exactly when it happened.    Thanks for any help.   ETW282

volcano11 · Answer

Are you running antivirus software with up to date virus definitions?  Have you scanned for and removed all spyware? Steve

etw282 · Answer

Yes, I am running McAfee antivirus with updated definitions.  I use AOL spyware checks, and have blocked anything that has been identified. ETW282

volcano11 · Answer

AOL spyware checker does very little in terms of getting rid of spyware already on your computer and is not very complete. Download, install, update, and run the free versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot and let these programs remove all of the garbage that they find.

If these programs don't solve the problem, go Here and follow the directions to download and run the analysis tool called HijackThis. Generate a log file, then open it and copy and paste the text of the log file in a message in the HijackThis forum where a HijackThis expert can offer advice on how to fix the problem.

Steve

Windows General

Startup errors

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