Windows XP hangs on desktop, no icons or taskbar

So, this is a new problem. my desktop now takes longer than vista to start up, and all ive got is windows xp pro, SP3 installed. it seriosuly hangs there with just the desktop wallpaper for like, a minute and a half, seemingly doing nothing. i am very regular about cleaning temp files and checking for spyware.

i was messing around with the services to try and make windows generally operate quicker, so when i noticed this i put everything back to factory settings. nothing.

i think i have the culprit narrowed down to when i started spybot search and destroy at the 'next system startup', so ive since deleted the program entirely. nothing.

can someone help with this? I know its not threatening, but it is quite annoying!

ETA: Ive also since cleaned my registry with RegCure.

 

i found a place online with the 'tweaked' versions, and also listed what it is normally at factory settings.

( http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm ) i used this when tweaking, and also to set back to factory. (i didnt reformat, i just went back into services and unchanged what i had changed)

 

fastest solution takes about 30 minutes .... clean reinstall and don`t use reg tweaks unless you understand them

 

well, i am fairly good with computers. most of those tweaks i do understand. if im ever not sure i dont touch it. but the things like secondary logon... im the only user account so i dont need that. that kind of stuff i was trying to get rid of.

would something like a system restore help so that way i dont have to lose all my files/backup all my files first?? its a fairly new format, like octoberish i got that new hard drive from my dad, and it was a clean install. so i dont understand what was making things lag so mcuh to begin with after only 2 months of using it.

 

Very similar problem. Friend's mother's computer: Originally an XP Home and apparently XP Media Center installed over it some time ago. Boot up is 4-5 minutes, hanging up at the background with no icons or tool tray.

Uninstalled and reinstalled: McAfee, Spybot, Spyware Blaster, Windows Defender and rebooted after uninstall/reinstall.

In msconfig, did diagnostic start up, looked all start up items and unchecked one at a time (those that were not necessary), restarting after each. The only reasonably short start up was when Local System Services and Load Startup were not checked.

Defrag, chkdsk and clean disk all done, no change. I'm thinking a bad update but, who knows?

 

i even went in and did a system cleanup (spyware, etc) in safe boot mode, hoping to catch some nasty bug while it was not running. nothing helped that way either for me.

CCleaner freed up some space, but still no faster bootup