I have tried allsorts of things to get rid of a setup program that runs on startup but i cant find where the program is in ms config startup option i also cannot open task manager to see what the program is called, it says its used by another program, any help with this would be a godsend i need to atleast use task manager even if i dont fix the setup program which runs(this can be cancelled when it appears).

If your msconfig is not working you can try autoruns its like msconfig just better


http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr...autoruns.shtml

i dont know what the program is that runs on startup or i would get rid of it and msconfig is working, its my ability to use task manager really i need (will the autoruns help with that?)

Autoruns won't help with your taskmanager, but this article might
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Taskmanager_error.htm

In case your copy of the taskmanager is corrupted it goes here
C:\WINDOWS\system32

I added a good copy you can download here
http://www.combobulate.com/kb/taskmgr.exe

If you still can't get it to work they do have a taskmanager replacement

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr.../procexp.shtml