What is causing the C:\Program Files\Common folder to open on boot up? I have to close it every time lately. Sometimes it reopens if I close it too soon. This is annoying. I have Windows XP.

Look in

c:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

and

c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

There may be a shortcut in one of those folders, windows runs any shortcuts in these folders automatically.

The answer to this problem can be found at http://www.techimo.com/forum/archive.../t-128257.html and I repeat the solution here, with thanks to the person who figured it out.

""Okay, here's the deal. Got that stupid folder coming up when you start up?

C:\Program Files\Common

The reason is that the registry is reading through the entries, and as the previous poster said, there are no quotes around C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec\... etc.

so whats going to happen is that windows will read the value up until the point it can load that thing its trying to load (in this case, you want to load ccapp.exe or whatever).

BUT heres the big thing, it will read until it CAN open something (if your value isnt in brackets).

In this case, it's opening C:\Program Files\Common because it got up to that part of the value and said "OK, right, I can open this folder! That's this value finished being read!"

Now the thing is, that C:\Program Files\Common folder doesnt usually exist, and truthfully has NO purpose! It's empty. Delete it!!! It's what causing the problems.

I did a test with this, I had a computer that has been working fine with Norton and everything, then I simply created a folder called C:\Program Files\Common, and did a reset.

Suddenly Norton wasnt working, and the folder popped up on boot.

Deleted the folder, reset, things worked fine.

Adding the quotation marks to the registry values is a fix, but it's only temporary. What happens when you install more programs and they have values with no brackets, in C:\Program Files\Common Files\... etc? The same problem will happen.

This is not isolated as far as I can guess. If you created a folder called C:\Program then you would have the same problem, only this time a fodler called C:\Program would open at startup, and all your registry keys starting with C:\Program Files\.... etc would fail to start.

So in conclusion, the problem is not norton, or your firewall, or whatever you think it may be. Your unquoted registry values are normal, they will work on a computer without the odd folder.
The problem lies in the way that the registry reads unquoted registry values, and this being combined with a folder which has no purpose and screws everything up. (C:\Program Files\Common)
I racked my brains for about an hour with this problem, and after doing research and experimentation, this is my final conclusive answer.

CAUSE: Sloppy install created "C:\Program Files\Common" for no reason

SOLUTION: Delete "C:\Program Files\Common" folder. Leave your registry as is!""

Did you ever get this figured out? It just started happening to me also!