Windows XP hangs on boot up

Hi,
While booting my computer, I get the welcome screen and when I try logging in, the system does not load properly and starts hanging. Sometimes I get to see my background with the icons but then I can't get into any of my programs. I think Zone Alarm free is not loading properly....how do I boot in safe mode and try to disable zone alrm to see if that is the problem?

I have windows Xp with SP2 and all the latest updates. I cannot run any scans coz for the most part I can't get into my computer to run them. I have updates the anti virus - Avast Free - and just yesterday scanned my computer. Really not sure what went wrong as I got no error messages......nothing loads!!

Thanks for all the help

 

Press F8 for safe mode.(while booting)
run>msconfig>startup
disable zone alarm.

 

Thanks, did try that but didn't seem to work will try againhttp://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/smile.gif