When I shutdown my XP, A box comes up to shut down program, "Win Min" not responding. Upon reboot I am redirected to www.alpha-search.com/home.html. I have tried to restore, run adware, run Norton all to no avail. Also, my windows media player comes up at startup even though it is removed from startup file. HELP....

Disable every startup item via msconfig.. renable them back in batches half @ a time. You will be able to single out the culprit and disable it permanently. Goodluck.

dave: i found today that the registry has startup programs listed that do not show in msconfig's startup tab, which was a surprise to me. first, set a restore point by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. click Start, Run, type: regedit drill down to: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run highlight Run in the left pane, in the right pane, right-click and Delete each program that you do not want starting at startup. also verify that the following has no surprise startups: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run