Help with Start Up - Windows XP

[John E]

I having a problem at start up. Windows Media player always starts when the computer is turned on and I can't find the short cut in any of the start up folders. What can be done? XP will not allow me to delete this program from add/delete programs.

[jugstah]

This is a problem I've never encountered but is it possible it's being loaded by a virus or a spyware app? Have you tried running an antivirus or anti-spyware app to see if it helps any?

If anything, a reinstall is always good.

[John E]

Jugstah,

Installed th elatest versions of spy-bot and norton antivirus last night and scanned the hard drive, no help. It still want to load at start up. Now I'm really

[jugstah]

Sounds like it's been enabled to fire up at bootup via the registry. I don't know of an easy way to tell you how to fix this, but the gist of it is that you can download some type of "registry" clean/viewer and try to fix it yourself.

Be warned though, many a rookie has tried "editing" their registry only to blow their computer out of the water, and having to reinstall their computer.

I'm a big fan of reinstalling my computer every six months. Goddamn those spyware are always staying a step ahead of the curve on the ad-aware/spybot cleaners.

[John E]

Jugstah,

Thanks for the help. I have to go through all the software that was preloaded and see if there's anything to fix the registry.

[Surfcastinglife]

DO NOT mess with the registry if you dont know what you're doing or you will have a heap of scrap metal where once stood a computer

[jugstah]

Originally posted by Surfcastinglife
DO NOT mess with the registry if you dont know what you're doing or you will have a heap of scrap metal where once stood a computer

That's a little bit dramatic. If he screws it up, he can always still reinstall Windows. Saying that it'll turn into a piece of scrap metal cuz of a registr error is a bit extreme, to say the least.