Everything minimizes to tray. XP Pro Sp2 Fresh Install

Topic says it all pretty much.. Here's a step by step of what I did.

I did a fresh install of XP Pro SP2.
Set my XP Account Password and Screensaver (on resume password protect) settings.
Installed .Net Framework from ATI.
Installed Catalyst Control Center Package (Video Drivers) from ATI.
Installed HD Audio CODECs (Audio Drivers) from RealTek.
Rebooted for Vid/Sound drivers. On start up I noticed everything was minimizing to my system tray.
Installed Trillian 3.1, Opera 9 TP2, and WindowBlinds 5, restarted for WindowBlinds.

I have not run any Windows Updates or installed any other apps.
This has happened to me in the past, formatting and reinstalling Windows XP has seemed to fix it, but I'd rather not format again after I got everything set up.

Also, as a side question (not too important), Sometimes if I install windows when I go Properties -> Screen Saver sometimes it says "On resume, display Welcome Screen" is there any way I can change that to "On resume, password protect" without turning off "Use Fast User Switching "? As I said.. this is not important, I have the settings the way I want them at the moment (password protect).

Thanks in advance

 

I've never heard of video driver/software minimizing everything to the system tray.... and I cannot find anything under the Catalyst Control Center that makes any reference to that beyond "Enable System Tray Menu" which is the system tray icon that launches the CCC. Any idea where it may be located?

 

Does this happen before or after installing Window Blinds? I know some of the skins used in Window Blinds have an option for minimizing things to the tray. Try turning it off and see if it continues.

 

before WindowBlinds.. The only things installed at the time were dotnet framework, graphics drivers and audio drivers. I belive that none of those three are the cause of the problem as it's happened on previous XP Pro installs before anything else (before even being on the network)