Fresh (from formatted & repartitioned hard drive) install of WinXP Home SP1, updated to SP2 (no other updates yet), downloaded and installed most up-to-date versions of Ccleaner, Avast!, Firefox and immediately initiated a boot-time scan. The machine is on a DSL line (behind a router), so it could have some infection, but I doubt it. The boot time scan hangs on C:\WINDOWS_default.pif…
What’s next? I doubt this file has been modified by an intruder/virus/malware, as the computer is so very fresh.