MVH - Have installed StartupCPL. Unfortunately no new info there - IE does not get a mention anywhere, so the situation is unchanged - I cannot turn off its autostart at reboot. However, StartupCPL is a great applet and I will keep it as part of my tweak kit.
Don D - I reset all progs in Zone Alarm and made them ask permission to go on line. None did at bootup. IE started at bootup, but did not try to go on line until I started browsing.
Chickenhawk, you said that when this happened to you, one day IE just didn't do it any more. I think that's possibly that's what happened to me last time (about 2 years ago). No wonder I can't remember how I did it - I didn't!!
That's not really a satisfactory answer, though, and I don't want to sit around waiting for IE to decide for itself again.
So if anyone has any further ideas ....
Thanks to all for input so far.
Cheers
AA