I have what seems to be a Start-up problem. Forgive my lack of technical terms as I am somewhat new and uninformed about computers. Following is a description of my problem.

I turn on my computer, wait for the screens to load and a McAfee Privacy Service Login applet appears. Next, I log in to McAfee. My background loads, however, there are no toolbars or shortcut icons. The computer proceeds to "loop back" to a blue screen saying "Welcome" in the middle. The initial Login Screen reappears. I now try to log in using my user name and McAfee pops up again. I log in to McAfee, then, my background comes up again (without toolbars or shortcut icons) for 3-4 seconds. Lastly, the blue screen reappears saying "Logging off" then "Saving your settings."

Any help with my issue would be sincerely appreciated.

Ben

Have you tried cancelling the McAfee privacy whatsit? It might be an idea to start in safe mode and stop that service from starting at boot

Either that or you've got a deeper problem. You have to start with the presenting symptoms to find the diagnosis

Just to detail a bit of what HappyBeaver pointed out:

Try booting into Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the F8 key after your BIOS POST but before Windows starts.


Is this a new problem? Were things working OK previously? Any new hardware and or software?

If this is a new problem try a System Restore to a point prior to the problem:

start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore


To stop McAfee from starting go to:

start run: msconfig | startup

Uncheck McAfee entries.


If none of the above helps: what is the exact make and model of the computer?

Do you have your XP CD? Or else OEM Recovery disks?