"Installing COM component" window on bootup -- help?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Every few times I boot or restart, I get a small pop-up window near
the end of the bootup with the heading "Installing COM Component". In the
box is "activex.microsoft.com", and a progress bar, which never starts. The
window just sits there; if I close it, I get the warning "Canceling will
likely result in failure of the current operation."

I have no idea what this is, why it's sporadically appearing, or what to do
with it. It's been going on quite a while, and I can't pinpoint its starting
to any changes on my system, or any added hardware.

Can anyone help?

Thanks very much.

I know it's 2 years later, but I'm having the same problem as the OP at the moment. Like was said in the last post, I frequently ran across this post when searching. This is the only place where a fix was given.

My question is, how do I disable the registry key?

I read the link you posted, but I couldn't really understand it. It was all a bit over my head.

Hopefully someone will seee this post, it's really frustrating.

Thanks in advance...