slow startup desktop icons

this isnt a big deal, but I've been wondering what causes it-after reloading
my operating system again for various reasons (xp home), I've noticed how
fast the desktop icons appear on startup and after loading numberous program
s
and filling up the desktop with icons, they still all appeared instantly on
startup, but I recently got a hung error with realone player and now when
icons load on startup, they appear in a single file sort of way if you know
what I mean-they're no longer instantly there-is this indicating some sort o
f
problem that wasnt there before? free pet rock to anyone who can answer--

Have you tried defragging since then? A hung file might have left remnants
of itself scatterd over half the hard drive. First thing i waould do is
analyze your disk with defrag.