Thanks everyone for the replies.
I cannot identify any progs looking for an update, including Windows itself. I have my homepage set to blank and still IE auto-starts on boot-up.
TR4A - no, with a blank home page it doesn't try to dial. However, If I reset the homepage to default (MSN homepage) it will try to dial, as you would expect.
Chickenhawk, I've drawn a blank on all the avenues you have suggested. I have manually fully updated my new installation from the Windows Update site - IE has no reason to go there unless there is some flag that should be automatically reset that hasn't happened. I agree that checking "Never dial a connection"is not the way to go.
EGLD, when IE starts it does not attempt to change the URL from either my chosen default of Blank or, when I reselect it, the default MSN homepage URL. That indicates to me that no software is trying to auto update, which I think is what you implied. Thanks for the registry tip. I had to insert "/MICROSOFT" between /SOFTWARE and /WINDOWS. The resulting list of progs in RUN is exactly what I have set up. IE is not one of them <img src="frown.gif" border="0">
This is
so @#%%&* frustrating!!!
AA
[ 11 February 2002: Message edited by: Ausatco ]</p>