XP Startup - Must be simple because I can't solve it!

My recollection of your EXACT problem I had I think was wrong because it was quite a while ago (on XP also). I do remember it was VERY annoying and was either related to a STALE *.lnk or even old *.PIF or even a "custom" TaskBar "toolbar". So a search for "suspicious" stale *.lnk *.pif may be useful.

And perhaps on another tack, checking the folders
\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\
\WINDOWS\system32\spool\drivers\

for any that you know are not standard/wanted may be useful because maybe an added Service *.dll is missing.

I do know that I solved it (for my similar annoying situation) and that it was related to some of above.

I cannot recall ALL the exact details unfortunately. My memory must fading

I hope this helps again

EDIT:

Ahh. Things are coming back to me I think. I remember now that stripper 2.07 final installed a Service (Device Manager -> Show Hidden Device -> engine???) that after I manually deleted the engine.sys (or ran "engine killer.bat") these explorer "system32" folder problems on startup occurred.

My ditto hopes yet again that this helps