Hi,I just built a new system few months ago. In the beginning the system was starting up extremely fast and was happy about the speed.After few months it started slowing down but I expected that since I added more programs but the last week or two windws hangs right at startup it shows the desktop but it hangs without any icons loading. After hard shut down and starting again sometimes randomly starts hangs for a while slow at statrup screen again and than it loads the icons. It also hangs when shutting down sometimes makes me do a hard shutdown.

Hi Exearth, Step 1 You may try to put the computer in a clean boot state and check if any third party application is causing this issue. Access the link below and follow the steps to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows XP.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353 If your issue is resolved after performing Clean Boot, then follow the steps mentioned in the below KB article to narrow down the exact source. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560 Also in the same article, see the section on how return your computer to a Normal startup mode by following the steps under “Reset the computer to start as usual” and set it to Normal startup. Step 2 This behavior can also happen if the computer is infected with virus or spyware or malware. You may run an online virus scan to verify if your computer is infected and remove the infected items. Access the link below to run an online virus scan.http://safety.live.com Hope this helps. Let us know the results. Thanks and Regards, Srinivas RMicrosoft Support.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

sometimes, if you ascertain a blank desktop you can press ctrl alt del keys to start the task manager.under process's tab you can kill explorer.exe then under the appliations tab, you can launch new task called explorer.exe db`...>-)))> `...>-)))> DatabaseBen, Retired Professional - Systems Analyst - Database Developer - Accountancy - Veteran of the Armed Forces- @Hotmail.com "share the nirvana mann" - dbZen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >