XP Slow to Start Up/Desktop Icons Missing at Start Up/Win Explorer Iss

[valvik]

Hello,

I installed XP Pro on a new hard drive I added to my Dell 8400.

Works fine except it is slow to start up. Also, from time to time my desktop icons do not appear at startup. Also, when this happens, I sometime get a message that Windows Explorer encountered a problem and needs to close.

I did customize the desktop e.g., larger icons, lowered screen resolution to 1024x768, adjusted the DPI setting to 108dpi, and various other changes to enlarge stuff so I could see them better.

I am not sure if the customization caused the issues I'm having, but it seemed that after I changed this stuff, the problems started to ocurr.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dan