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

I remember having some similar unusual behaviour quite a while back.

Check your

\Documents and Settings\??????\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\

for any Invalid/Stale links (*.lnk) etc. that a program "forgot" to uninstall. If the binary pointed to by the *.lnk is not there anymore (eg. system32 directory) then the directory will be opened by explorer.exe because the actual FILE does not exist.

MSCONFIG does not list/check the Quick Launch links. And this also assumes you have your "Quick Launch" toolbar VISIBLE in you TaskBar, but will ALSO exhibit SIMILAR behaviour if NOT visible.

Hope this helps you.

nullz