Windows 7 - can't start programs

Hi!

I have a problem where sometimes I can't start programs after Windows loads.
A click the icon on the taskbar, the cursor changes to busy, but the application doesn't start, it only appears in Task Manager using ~100KB RAM with 0 CPU time.

Googled for a long time, tried disabling all start-up programs in msconfig.exe, but that didn't solve the problem.
Then I started 'randomly' killing processes, and after killing the svchost.exe which has the dwm.exe as a child process, all my programs would start up.
Also, I can start the programs if I run them as admin, or if I run them from a (normal) cmd.

What could be the problem?

My config:
Windows 7 Prof. x64 SP1
ATI Catalyst 11.3
avast!
Comodo Firewall

I had the same problem for a day, the programs seemed to launch from the task bar and showed the the processing timer via the mouse, but never loaded. checked task manager and they had 100-120k mem used. My solution was to take off a USB stick that I had left plugged in. I've tried it 3x with the stick and the problem happens, and 3x without in which the problem never occurs.

hope this helps.

Duke

my specs:

AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1090T Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
8192MB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Service Pack 1
HD: 2x Samsung 1TB
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Programs won't open in Windows 7 - Page 2 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Windows 7 programs refuse to open (100k problem) - Other-Components - CPU-Components

in case u wanna see other ppl's answers besides mine. each forum had users with the same prob.

I have the same problem. Only Internet explorer always starts. After rebooting 2 or 3 times, everything's ok. Sometimes when I close Google chrome, I can't start it again. Its driving me crazy.

yea explorer worked fine for me. try unplugging 1 unnecessary usb item.

@Duke: Thanks, I'll try that out!

One time, all 64bit apps worked fine, but it happened only once, so I thought I shouldn't mention it.

Any thoughts on why is this happening? Does Microsoft know about it? They should really fix this 'till Windows 8

well come to think of it yea...my 64 bit apps did run and the rest didnt hmm curious

as far as microsoft knowing dunno. it just may be a usb3 error caused by a recent update, which is what i saw in one of the other forums.

i did run a win update recently...

I removed sp1. Seems to be working. I will let you know if it stays this way.

Ok, next day. I started up my pc and I can start everything without problems. Lets hope it stays this way.

I now know for sure its sp1. Since I removed it, the problem did not return.