Just tried to use add/remove programs from control panel and it comes up blank. Just sits there saying "please wait while list is populated" and the hard drive activity light just stays on. The other functions are OK (add/remove windows components etc.) This is my wife's computer, so no idea how long it's been this way. Virus scan comes up clean, and adware is clean. Does not work in safe mode either. Searched for an answer, came up empty. Any ideas.

open your task manager (right click on the tasl bar and choose task manager) and see what is taking up all your resources and post back Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks

Sometimes it can take quite a while to display the screen. Are you being too impatient? Another possibility is a hard drive problem. Run chkdsk /f. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

Thanks for the responses but... I discovered that the D drive showed up as not being formatted. Fortunately I had a recent backup so I was able to format and then reinstall the files, without any loss. Once that was done it's all back to normal. I'll run a disk check utility, just in case. (It is a Maxtor) Coincidence maybe, but this person had the same problem yesterday: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/...

could be one of the new critical updates. There were a bunch yesterday. Hopefully my advice will help you...Please post back with your results....thanks