I've seen a few weird cases where Windows doesn't read the registry properly on a boot, and you can get a couple of side effects from that:

- as you saw, unexpected "reconfiguring Windows" message at boot as it automatically installs drivers for hardware it thinks it hasn't seen before
- when you try to log on to your profile, you get a blank, default one instead (although your logon is successful)

If that happens the worst thing you can do is to try to repair, restore or otherwise rebuild your profile. Just shut the machine down (power down, not just a restart, leave off for 30 seconds), then restart.

You might want to check your System and Application event logs once things have settled down.

I don't agree with Microsoft's increasingly aggressive default power-saving options. A lot of them might save pennies (or a few dollars) per year at best. All it takes is one service call required, or a half hour of lost time because of a problem with these settings and all those puny savings are lost.

>I removed my battery a few minutes ago, after powering down, then put the battery back in. The laptop is now re-booted and on A/C. After I powered the laptop up, in the midst of booting up, a Message stated that it was configuring windows. I had not done any recent updates to the laptop at all, so I wonder what that was about?
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>I am going to let the laptop sit and see what happens now. If it doesn't power itself off after inactivity, I will go back in and make sure it does not hibernate at all while on A/C. And, then I'll check other settings also.
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>Cecil
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>>Definitely check your power settings, especially if it's Windows 7. For laptops, default power settings shut of power to various devices (e.g. hard drives) after inactivity, and make it sleep or hibernate. Even for desktops there's a surprising amount of "green" power-saving stuff enabled by default, even for the "while on AC power" scenario.
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>>For Windows 7 you need to go into numerous details to make sure each one is as you want it.