Hi, I'm hoping someone can tell me what is going on here, because it has me stumped.This all began when I started the computer up on Monday. Before this, when my computer loaded up, it took about half a minute on the windows loading screen and another on the welcome screen before everything loaded up. On Monday, it took about two seconds on the welcome screen - and my startup programs loaded in a different order. They are all still there, but the icons are not in the order they always are.It did it again on Tuesday, though slightly different. Yesterday, it started up as it always does. Today, it's even more different. For my main example (and the ones that are peeving me the most) - I have IBM access connections on this laptop for internet connections. Every day before this, after it loads, it moves itself next to the clock and does not move again. Today, it's stayed out among the others, the next to last icon in the row.The only new programs that have been added or changed was on Sunday, when I uninstalled Adobe and installed Foxit Reader.The computer is an IBM Thinkpad laptop running Windows XP Pro SP 3, and is fully updated from the Windows updates.I know this is probably a little thing, but it is bothering me. Could anyone please tell me what could be making my computer, and its startup programs, load differently? Or at least how to make them go back in the order I'm used to them being in on the taskbar?ETA: I just finished a virus scan, and I scanned yesterday (full scans) with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and SuperantiSpyware, so I'm fairly sure that is not the issue, though it's always hard to tell.

Hi LadyPhenyx, If a startup entry is taking up time to load (due to various other reasons from disk read to OS issues) windows will load the next item in the queue. So the chances of changing the order or loading the startup items is always there. To improve the performance of the computer you may refer the below links and try the steps listed in there: Maintenance tasks that improve performance: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/improveperf.mspx 5 ways to speed up your PC:http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx To know more about the order in which the computer loads the startup item, refer the below link:A definition of the Run keys in the Windows XP registry:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314866 Regards:Samhrutha G S - Microsoft Support.Visit ourMicrosoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Okay, if it can change without warning then I guess I'll just chalk it up to the computer being its own, strange self. After the year I have had with it, every little thing makes me sure it's about to have another major error, and it was weird with defragmentor this last Saturday (The green "unmovable" files have always been the same general size and place, and on Saturday suddenly were moved and much bigger. I've been told it happens, and am blaming it on the RAM upgrade.), which made me wonder if this was another sign of something wrong when the two combined. If it's fairly normal, though, then I won't worry about it. Thanks for the reassurance, I will look over the links you have provided as well to be sure.