Weird start up behaviour

[blinkyblinky]

My original post has disappeared off the bottom of the screen, so I'm posting this again with some extra info in the hope that someone can help.

A nearly empty folder opens at startup. Just the folder, not the program. I close it and get on with things, but it's annoying. I thought about just deleting the folder, but then I suppose I'd get an error message every time I switch on my computer saying "cannot open..." or worse.

I used Mike Lin's Startup cpl and it doesn't show there. I looked in mscongig, can't find it there either. I searched the web for help, and figure it might be something to do with the registry. I looked in regedit, but couldn't find it, although I'm not sure where to look.

The folder that opens is C:\Program

This isn't the main program files folder on C, just a small folder created (I guess) by the program I installed before (which I uninstalled using the add/remove programs function.)

However, just to make things weirder still, I found a post on another site where a guy recommended that someone with a similar problem just rename the folder.

So, I renamed it to progras (without shutting down and restarting). Then, when I clicked on a media file to play, windows media player didn't open. I got a message saying "cannot find the C:\progras files\windowsmediaplayer\wmplayer.exe

I checked, and I hadn't accidentally renamed the "program files" folder (where wmplayer.exe is) to "progras files" - I'd just renamed the almost empty "Program" folder to "Progras". When I renamed it back to "program", media files opened automatically again.

There must be some connection between the "program" folder and the Program files" folder???

I'm way out of my depth - any help much appreciated.

[rojash]

There is a bug in windows that gets it confused if any folder in the root of the boot drive contains the word "program" - it gets confused with "Program Files". Just try renaming the folder, and you should find the problem goes away. If it does, you can then delete the folder.