holy_piranha

Hi confite, No workaround that I know of, I'm afraid. I simply left Spy Sweeper uninstalled.

W3bbo - still no clearer. Sorry! As far as I know, I am the default user. My desktop wallpaper (Desktop > Properties > Desktop > Background) is set to '(None)' and the 'Color' drop down menu is set to white. So effectively there is no wallpaper set on the default user account, right? HKEY_USERS > .DEFAULT > Control Panel > Desktop > Wallpaper is now a blank string. This was previously set to 'MCE Black.jpg'. I realise that if the logon Wallpaper is set, the background color may not be visible, which is why I reset the Wallpaper value to a blank string in this key. HKEY_USERS > .DEFAULT > Control Panel > Colors > Background is set to 0 0 0 (black). HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon > Background is set to 0 0 0 (black). I know that if the Background value is set under this Winlogon registry key, the above setting is ignored. As in, the Winlogon > Background value takes precedence over the .DEFAULT. > Background value. But as they're both set to 0 0 0 this should not have any impact. Given my notes above, why is the blue screen still appearing? Thanks.

W3bbo, Installed XPize 5 Release 6 on Dell laptop running Windows XP Pro SP3. I've removed the "/NOGUIBOOT" and "/BOOTLOGO" flags from the Boot.ini file to restore the original animated XP boot screen. My Visual Style and Welcome Screen are set to Luna Element Black and my Wallpaper (Default Wallpaper - Registry > HKEY_USERS > .DEFAULT > Control Panel > Desktop > Wallpaper) is set to 'MCE Black.jpg'. On boot up, the standard animated XP screen is present for several seconds, then the 'MCE Black' Wallpaper appears for 2-3 seconds, I then get a blue screen flash up for a brief second before the Welcome Screen appears. No visual style, wallpaper, theme, welcome screen etc is set to that blue colour. It does not effect the Windows loading process - just doesn't look great. - Why do I get the blue screen flashing up before the Welcome Screen? - Is there any way I can remove it? Thanks.

W3bbo, Just to update you - it appears that Webroot's Spy Sweeper was the cause of my problem. Shut it down (now uninstalled it) and IE8 launches just fine. Spy Sweeper had been installed for along while and, as I said, IE had previously been working alongside it ok. I have no idea how or when this problem was caused, but that was definitely the cause of my IE starting problem. I suspect it might have something to do with the acroiefavclient.dll file (part of the Adobe PDF Toolbar for Internet Explorer) as Spy Sweeper was hanging on this file whilst I was trying to do a Spy Sweeper scan. That's what got me thinking - Spy Sweeper hanging on a file that just happens to be a plug-in for IE which I am am having problems with. Thanks again for your help anyway - much appreciated.

Thanks W3bbo. Haven't quite decided whether I'll uninstall XPize and (hopefully) get the (very occasional) use of IE back again. Or keep XPize installed, benefit from the visual improvements and simply use Firefox with the Coral IE Tab extension to visit IE-dependent sites. I will update this thread with any developments - good, bad or indifferent. Although, I cannot say for sure that XPize is solely responsible for this problem, I am very confident that it is the root of the issue. IE launched and worked fine just a few days ago (for an online AV scanner) and I have not installed any other new software since then other than XPize - which, in all fairness, does make some pretty deep changes to the OS and system, as I understand it. Maybe others will experience this problem too (maybe not!) and a 'fix' might be able to be found for a future release. I did make a backup when installing, so I would - in theory - be able to uninstall XPize and return to my previous settings ok. Thanks again.

Hi W3bbo - thanks for the response & suggestions. Starting 'Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)' is no different and has no positive effect. IE still doesn't launch, and other programs still won't start etc, as per the original problem. As I said, can't kill the IE process using Task Manager. Tried your suggested command line but unfortunately, still no joy - go to 'Run' > type 'cmd.exe' > hit 'Ok' but nothing happens. The command prompt simply doesn't appear - so it is not even possible to enter your suggested command line. IE still doesn't launch and, again, I have to hard reboot the machine. For the record, all programs / applications / cmd.exe etc seem to launch and work just fine as long as I have not tried to start IE first. Trying to launch IE (with or without Add-ons) is the cause of the subsequent problems. For your reference, my version of IE is 8.0.6001.18702IS (I have retrieved this via 3rd party software, as I am obviously not able to successfully launch IE to check the version number!). I use Firefox, not IE, as my browser. I only use IE when I had to (e.g. Microsoft Update, certain online AV scanners etc). I really like the changes that XPize has made to my system and, ideally, I would like to keep it installed and benefit from the improved appearance. So in order to try and get around this problem I have just installed the 'Coral IE Tab' Firefox extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10909) - which enables me to use the embedded IE engine within tabs of Firefox. This extension appears to work fine and I am able to access Microsoft Update from within FF. - Why would the IE engine work ok within FF like this, yet not as a standalone application? Despite the fact that I can hopefully alleviate the need to ever use IE, by using this FF extension, I would obviously still like to try and resolve the problem and get things working 100%. - How do I correctly uninstall XPize? (Add & Remove Programs?) - When you suggest uninstalling XPize and you say, 'which will restore your system files to thier original state, it doesn't "unpatch" them' - does that mean that my system WILL or WILL NOT go back to exactly how it looked before I installed XPize (the standard Microsoft Zune theme)? What XPize changes, if any, would remain? Thanks very much. Rob

Having installed XPize5R6 on a Dell laptop running Windows XP Pro SP3, all seems well so far except for one problem... When I try to launch IE8, the system effectively hangs. Initially I thought it was specifically a problem with Microsoft Update, but it appears that the problem occurs simply through trying to launch IE8. If I attempt to start IE8, my system essentially hangs (and IE8 does not start). The system does not freeze completely, in that the auto-hide Taskbar, for example, will still appear. But, I am unable to launch any other program from the Start Menu and even CTRL+ALT+DEL ceases to have any effect. The only option being to simply switch the machine off, and then back on again. - Anyone else with a similar configuration experiencing this problem? - Any ideas / suggestions / advice for resolving the issue? Many thanks. Rob