I am having a serious startup problem that seems to point to ccSvcHst as the culprit. I am running Windows XP Pro SP2 and recently installed Norton Internet Security 2011 as an update to my 2010 version. Now, when I start my computer, the startup process hangs when Norton tries to start up. Task Manager indicates that ccSvcHst is unable to complete whatever it is that it is trying to do and as a result, my machine will not completely boot up. I get past the password entry screen and my desktop and icons do display, but that is as far as it will go. Cursor will not activate any programs and when it is placed over the taskbar, I get the hour glass. Also unable to activate the shutdown process from the Start button. Shutdown can only be accomplished via the Task Manager (activated by ctrl-alt-del). Using the Task Manager to restart the computer does NOT solve my problem as the startup process hangs again. So far, the only way I am able to start up my computer is to press and hold the start button on the tower to force a shutdown and then press the start button again to restart the machine. This procedure works 50% of the time.
In your experience, have you heard of similar problems? What solutions do you recommend? What should I be looking at as a source of the problem? Registry? Are my Registry keys screwed up?