OK, let me start from the begininning: 1) Upgraded from XP Home to XP Pro 2) Now boot takes forever to get to login screen 3) Once at lgin in, I enter my password and then it hangs at "Loading personal setting ..." 4) If I CTRL-ALT-DEL, then it proceeds to the desktop 5) THEN, it takes forever for the desktop to come completely up 6) In general, whenever I start an application, it takes a l-o-o-o-ng time for it to come up 7) The slowness of applications to load was there before I upgraded from Home 8) The Pro upgrade was purchased over the net and it said for use with Compaq computer only (did I get ripped off? paid $159) 9) My system specs are: Sony PCV-RX550 P4 1.5 GHz 512 MB PC-133 DRAM 400 MHz Front Side Bus 60 GB ATA/100 HD 40X CD-ROM i.LINK (IEE 1394) chipset (motherboard) Intel 845 chipset Gainward Nvidia GeForce 4400 Ti Golden Sample Soundblaster Audigy Windows XP - Pro Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!! Thanks.

Resources for Troubleshooting Startup Problems in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q308041