Usually the black box with "taskeng.exe" pops up each time I boot up.

 

My PC is clear of viruses, malware, etc. so that's not the cause.

 

I've looked on line but I'm not entirely clear how to stop the box from appearing.

 

 

Given that, what is the best way to eliminate, in Vista, this box from appearing ?

taskeng.exe is a normal process and not malware. You may have a misbehaving process or service on startup causing it to choke.

 

I would go to msconfig and look for anything unusual. Uncheck anythng you don't need (and is not part of the OS of course)

Edited October 18, 201510 yr by smeezekitty

Check for scheduled tasks, the process is the task scheduler engine.

taskeng.exe is the Task Scheduler Engine

I ran msconfig.

 

There's a lot out there so identifying someting "unusual" isn't easy.

 

Under "Services", it shows me what's running and what's stopped.

 

Task Schduler shows as "running". If I "uclicked" it, would that cause a problem ?

I would not recommend disabling Task Scheduler.

Which edition of Vista do you have?

To see what tasks you have, go to Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, then Task Scheduler.

When I get to Task Scheduler, what do I do or what should I look for ?

Look for tasks scheduled to run on user logon.

The tasks listed to be executed "At Logon By Any User"  :

 

Adobe Acrobat Update Task

Hot Start

OptinNotification

QueueReporting

RocketTab

SystemSoundService

TMM