Okies .. I was assuming you'd fill in the gaps. From the top: win.com is an application that is involved with allowing backwards compatibility within XP. Let's you run all those dos based games and stuff. Something you're loading at Start Up is trying to access it. Things don't always load in the same order at Start, so probably two programs are relying on win.com. When the one with the correct path to win.com loads first, all is well, as win.com loads and is then available for the second app. When the loading occurs the other way round, the prog with the wrong path can't find win.com and the whole thing stops. That's probably why the problem is intermittent. The links I gave tell you how to diagnose and repair win.com if it's broken. To confirm that it's a legacy program relying on backwards compatibility, boot into Safe mode, then load older progs one at a time. Check in Properties to find which are W98 or older. Course, if you can remember loading an older prog recently, or if a system restore to an earlier date cures this, then you won't need to go through the whole msconfig diagnosis routine (have half the progs load on Start, if no error switch which Progs start, then narrow down until you find which is causing the issue). Oh, the Aida32 site is closed cos the guy who built it got headhunted. But you can get it for free from several FreeWare sites. Well worth getting. Good luck.