Every time I start win2k my machines looks like it's starting up absolutely fine, BUT even though I can open the START menu, AND I can left click on icons on the desktop, I can't run ANYTHING. No program will start. I also can't right click on icons, as nothing will happen. If I hover over an icon the text "labels" will appear over them as usual (forgive my non-techie vocabulary). If I
hit Ctrl/Alt/Delete the Security menu/window will appear, but if I try to open the task manager the window just vanishes without the task manager ever appearing. I can select SHUT DOWN or RESTART etc. from the START menu, but
it takes a long time as I have to wait for Windows to tell me that several programs are running and need to be shut down. Sometimes I can get internet explorer to start, but it's never able to load a web page. Sometimes it
never even appears, but during shutdown I will be told that it is running. During shutdown I am told a few programs are NOT RESPONDING and after awhile I can actually shut the machine down. The things it says are running are explorer, earthlink taskbar, and a few other
normal things that don't really seem to have anything to do with the problem...stuff that's been in my task bar forever and has never given me trouble. Also, apparently DR. Watson is trying to do something but can't because I'm
frequently told that drwtsn32.exe initialization failed due to the shutdown request. A few times I have gotten messages about rundll.32 during shut down as well at times (not always). I can boot up in Safe mode with networking to use the internet. I don't see any hardware conflicts in the device manager
when I do this. I had some trouble with my USB cable modem the night that this craziness started, so there may be a connection. The modem lost power and wouldn't work until I unplugged it for awhile. I've actually
reinstalled win2k and downloaded all the updates while bouncing back and forth between safe mode and normal, since I can't even get windows updates during a normal startup. I've been at this for over seven hours and I'm
about to smash my face through the monitor in
frustration. Please. someone help! Thanks in advance.

Still no luck? press start/run/type msconfig and enter go to start up tab leave syst tray, ptsnoop.scan reg and any mouseware prog checked.
now restart in normal mode.Problem gone? then
Reuse msconfig and recheck half the things You unchecked before if the problem is back then one if the programs you've rechecked is causing it.

Thanks everyone!