"Installing COM component" window on bootup -- help?

[Guest]

Every few times I boot or restart, I get a small pop-up window near
the end of the bootup with the heading "Installing COM Component". In the
box is "activex.microsoft.com", and a progress bar, which never starts. The
window just sits there; if I close it, I get the warning "Canceling will
likely result in failure of the current operation."

I have no idea what this is, why it's sporadically appearing, or what to do
with it. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much.

 

[Rock]

Every few times I boot or restart, I get a small pop-up window near
the end of the bootup with the heading "Installing COM Component". In the
box is "activex.microsoft.com", and a progress bar, which never starts. The
window just sits there; if I close it, I get the warning "Canceling will
likely result in failure of the current operation."

I have no idea what this is, why it's sporadically appearing, or what to do
with it. Can anyone help?

Thanks very much.

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

 

[Noodlewad]

The reply that was originally posted was a nice try but is very generic and does not apply at all to fixing this.

I know this is old, but there are not very many results when trying to fix this and I frequently ran across this post when searching. I want the fix to be listed here.

Follow this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323207

Basically disable the registry key it refers to. I put a ; at the very beginning of the line to do it.

Good luck all