A new cause for slow performance when starting OE in WinXP is the integration of Windows Messenger. Is Messenger starting when Windows starts? If so, then the cause of OE's performance hit is something else. If it is *not* running at startup, then OE is probably launching Messenger and waiting for it to fully initialize before it continues initializing OE itself. 

To prevent OE from launching Messenger, click Tools>> Options and remove the check mark for "Automatically log on to Windows Messenger". Then add a check mark for "When starting, go directly to my "Inbox" folder". Then click View>> Layout and remove the check mark for "Contacts". If you open the Contacts pane, or if you open the OE start page, then Messenger will launch in order to update the online status of your contacts.

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