Thank you so much for your reply. I tried what you suggested but it seems that all the items listed are ticked already! Any other suggestions? I presumed it must be this because only two things happened while the engineer was here:
1. he loaded vpn software and software to enable use of a remote citrix server; and
2. he removed items I told him to remove from my status bar; some were deleted from the main start>all programs>startup; others were removed from another part of the pc which looked scarey!
What else could it be?
However, thinking about it, one item I told him to remove from the status bar was roxio drag to disc; now that doesn't appear to be listed in the startup tab. Also, I know that he didn't use this method (the method you suggested) to disable the programs. From memory, he went to and area called 'run' after going through a number of sub folders. Also it wasn't a matter of ticking it was a matter of deleting. I think!
On the subject, I am reasonably pc literate and normally manage to work things out eventually either from just thinking about the problem logically or by searching the internet for help. I have never been into msconfig unitl reading your reply. I want to understand more about this area. Where should I look to learn more? Any books?
Thanks again, I appreciate your help.
Olaf
