Windows Desktop Crashing on Startup

OK heres the deal. When I startup my pc everything seems to be going ok till right at the end. I can move the mouse around the desktop but I can't access the icons. When I mouse over the taskbar I get an hourglass, nothing happens when I click on start (right or double left click). The only thing I can do that I've found is Ctrl+Alt+Del which I've used to record the processes in Task Manager which I've also used to open msconfig and record the startup items, by hand mind you, no way I see to copy and paste or export anything to disk, though theres probably a way through the command prompt I'm unaware of. Anyhow before I go too far I'll list a few specs about my system.

I was running Windows XP with all the latest updates when this happened 2 weeks ago. Hadn't used spybot or adaware in 6-8 weeks and haven't had an active antivirus for almost a year. (I know, big mistake!)
My computer is a Gateway 700X, got it just over 3 years ago in October 2002.
3.06 Ghz, 1024 Megs of RAM which I upgraded from 512 with exactly the same sticks over a year ago. 120 GB HD with approx. 5 GB free space after "purging" one of my video download folders through the command prompt, but when this problem occured I was constanly deleteing a few gigs to download a few gigs, almost every day.

As for what happened, I'd had my PC on for a week or so, downloading episodes of X-files off Kazaa, the ones I missed watching stream from winamp, I'll admit that now that I'm feeling vulnerable without my baby runnin. ;(
After a week of having the PC constantly downloading files and playing video I decided to get a quiet night of sleep in hopes of having lucid dreams of Agent Scully when I shut down my PC for the night. Upon waking I turned my PC on and the same process that has occured the last 30 times I've started it up began. Once the computer makes it to the desktop it crashes, if this can be considered a crash. No blue screen, no black screen, just constantly busy with something and I want to know exactly what it is so I can put a stop to it.

Now when I shutdown or restart, and this is probably important info, I get a sort of error message "End Program - explorer.exe" where I get the option to end the program or cancel and go back to the desktop after a minute of the blue bar across the bottom of the window filling up. It's always been explorer.exe, never any other program.

Not sure how much this information will help without the commands or locations but I've written down the processes in task manager and the startup items in msconfig.

Processes in Windows Task Manager:
alg.exe
csrss.exe
cthelper.exe
CTsvcCDA.EXE
DirectCD.exe
explorer.exe
hpztsb05.exe
imapi.exe
jusched.exe
LogiTray.exe
lsass.exe <- not sure if this is lower case L or I but it's not the bad one.
LVComS.exe
msnmsgr.exe
MsPMSPSv.exe
NMSSvc.Exe
nvsvc32.exe
PRISMXL.sys
PROMon.exe
qttask.exe
QuickDCF.exe
services.exe
SK9910DM.EXE
smss.exe
snmp.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe <- 6 times with different commands and locations
System
System Idle Process
taskmgr.exe
wdfmgr.exe
winlogon.exe
WkUFind.exe

Now I'm aware most of those are a lot of crap Gateway put on my PC but I've listed everything just in case.

Startup Items listed in the System Configuration Utility:

dumprep 0 -k
UpdReg
jusched
REGSHAVE
qttask
PROMon
TINTSETP
TINTSETP
nwiz
NvMcTray
NvCpl
ADGJDet
WkUFind
LogiTray
ISStart
ADGJDet
IMJPIMG
hpztsb05
SK9910DM
CTHELPER
DirectCD
msn msgr
Exif Launcher
Logitech Desktop Messenger
Microsoft Office

Once again, most if not all of these came with my pc or some hardware or software I legitimately installed. The ones listed twice were on the list twice with other information different. I didn't write everything down but if anything seems overly suscpicious or if you're familiar with this problem and know whats happening I could use the help. I've searched the web and haven't found anyone with quite the same problem.

Please help.

Loosing sleep,
Hawking

 

Go into Safe Mode by hitting F8 before Windows starts loading.

From Safe Mode, go to start, run, and type services.msc.

Click OK.

Disable SSDP Discovery Service.

Boot back to normal mode and test.

 

I'll head home and try now.
Letcha know if it worked in a couple hours, maybe less if I don't have to walk back here. =)

 

If it does work, let me know and I'll post a good working copy of the service for you to merge into your registry when i get a chance.

 

OK, well it didn't work but I did solve my problem with another kind of "cheap trick". I read somewhere that if you close explorer.exe in processes and then start it back up in run that it would work, well I tried that and it only worked for about 5 seconds before freezing up again, but in that time I was able to begin installing Norton System Works 2006 ( I was told that if I booted off the cd that it'd fix the problems but that didn't work, booting from the cd it didn't find anything, viruses or otherwise). Upon getting the installation to begin I then closed explorer.exe anytime the virus scan froze up, then ran it again from the new task option in windows task manager. Managed to finish installing, and scanning that way after the first install failed due to an "error 9999,171" which basically said I needed to disconnect from the internet because processes were using up too much CPU. Disconnected from the net, reinstalled again and then when the initial scan that was checking "windows shortcuts" froze for half an hour I just closed explorer.exe and started it back up again and VOILA the scan finished, asked me to restart, and upon doing so my desktop was back to normal.

*breathe*

2 weeks of no PC was kind of a nice vacation, but I wouldn't do it voluntarily, thats for sure! Thanks a lot Adrynalyne for tryin to help. I did what you said, went into services, disabled that SSDP Discovery Service and restarted after, but it was still the same =/ Not sure what that might have done but I didn't notice anything change, so I reset it to manual.

once again thanks for offering some advice, but I realized the best thing to do when you're in a bind like that is just to search the whole web, with all the keywords you can come up with and then just look at forum after forum (which I've been doing for the past 2 weeks, and is how I learned about the closing and reopening explorer.exe trick)

From now on I'm going to keep adaware and spybot up to date and run them every week or so, and when norton runs out, I think I'll try AVG, heard a lot of good things about it after reading fifty thousand forum posts

Thanks majorgeeks for being one of the forums that came up often on my server, if I run into anything I'll be sure to come back here looking for more help, and if I come across anything I can help with I'll be sure to spread a little wisdom around.

Ahhh I got my baby back! =)

Sure to rest easy now,

Hawking