Windows hiccup

[readylearn]

When I startup my computer, which is at about 7:00 - 7:30 am Eastern Time, it will fully boot directly to the desktop like it's suppose to, but it no longer remembers my Internet Explorer 6.0 Favorites, Outlook Express 6.0 Address Book or Settings, Desktop Wallpaper, Windows Color Scheme, and newly setup icons.

I'm suspecting over active memery dumps, because if my memory serves me correctly icons, color scheme settings, and wallpaper are all stored in your memory.

Another thing it tends to do is partiaclly setup my computer as if it's a fresh install, where the "My Computer" and "My Network Places" icons can only be accessed from the start menu, the color scheme of windows is set to Windows XP style Default (blue), and the Tour Windows XP icon appears in the taskbar.

I am running the following peices of software on my computer at the moment, I have listed them incase there are any known issues with them.

Norton Internet Security TM 2003
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp1.020828-1920
Microsoft Outlook Express 6 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Cerulean Studios Trillian 0.74 (w/ Patch F)
PowerDVD 4.0.11
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
OpenOffice.org 1.0.3
Nero Burning Rom 5.5.10.54
The Gimp 1.2.5
Adobe Photoshop 4.0
Futuremark 3DMark03 3.4.0
George's Disk Performance Test 0.14
Sun Java Web Start Application Manager 1.4.2_03

I am guessing that the only way to fully fix this problem, is a reformat and fresh installation of Windows but I just thought I would post to see if there were any other ways to fix this problem.

Thank you for reading my post and replying if you happen to.

P.S. My system's stats can be found in my signature.

JB

[Yawgm0th]

I only use a couple of those programs so I'm not particularly knowledgeable about them, but if one of them is causing a problem I would assume it to be Norton Interet Security. As some sort of anti-spyware thing, it may have messed with your settings because it erroneously thought they had been changed. It's also possible that you have somehow switched to a different user. If you have messed around with your user accounts that would be a likely cause. It also could be some sort of spyware or a virus, I suggest using AVG and Adaware if you don't already have virus protection. If these steps don't work and nobody else has any suggestions, I suggest a reformat and reinstall. Just back any important files and get ready to spend hours reinstalling software, drivers, and reverting settings.

[Dyck15]

Have all of those programs worked 100% before? I find it somewhat hard to beleive that photoshop 4 would support winXP. Try uninstalling some of the programs (assuming you can find the installation CDs still) and see if that works.

A lot of older programs had problems with XP causeing serious damage. I beleive zone alarm did at first, for example.

[Wiggo]

I beleive zone alarm did at first, for example.

Ya believe wrong there as I've been usin' ZA longer than XP has been out but no version of ZA that I've used on any XP install has ever done that. I'd be lookin' further into NIS though.

[Beefy]

Sounds to me like your profile isn't being saved. Here's something to try - Set up a new user account, log on as that user, change a few obvious things (add some Favorites, move some icons, change desktop), then restart the computer, log in as that user and see if things are still the same.

[readylearn]

Dear Dyck15,

I just wanted to post and thank you for pointing me in the direction that one of my programs might not have support for Windows XP.

I uninstalled Adobe Photoshop 4.0, since that's the only program I have that does not or possibly could not have support for Windows XP. Then I restarted my computer to see if that fixed the problem and sure enough, everything was in their rightful place and all settings were remembered.

Thanks allot

JB

[Yawgm0th]

Little innocent Photoshop did it!? :flames: It's always the one you don't expect.