Never had this before, but now when I turn my computer on the first thing that happens is a popup with “copy” written in the blue bar, and underneath it says: "Windows cannot find ‘copy’. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button and then click Search."
Wtf? It’s trying to search ‘copy’ before I even see the desktop. And I’ve scanned for viruses, I keep up to date on virus/bug protection, so does anybody know what this is? Thanks.
Go to Start|Run, type msconfig, hit OK, and go to the Startup tab. This will show you all the programs that are running at startup. You can use the checkboxes to selectively disable some of them to narrow down which one is causing this error.
I’m wondering if it is happening even before the Startup group loads. As long as you are at msconfig check the win.ini tab and see if you find the search string there.
A program called Startup Cop is great to use:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,2173,00.asp
Do not use msconfig to disable Windows XP services.
Use services.msc instead.
Here is a GREAT list of needed services. Every time I install Windows, I immediately go through and disable half of them which speeds up windows considerably.
I’m not sure what’s causing your errors though 
Another idea is to hit ctrl-shift-esc when you see the error to bring up your task manager. Click the processes tab and you can identify what all is running.
Going through msconfig seemed to have done the trick. It wouldnt have been possible for me to ctrl alt del and get rid of it since by clicking OK on the box it’s already gone; then the desktop finally appears. Thanks for all the help.
In future you can just drop any message you get in a search engine,
e.g Try this anyway:
http://www.google.com/
Input:
'Windows cannot find ‘copy’
Answer appears in a second, cool.
Really, handy? Just what answer is that? The only thing on the first page of results that pertains to the OP’s error coming up at startup is this computing.net thread. As of right now that thread does not have any solutions posted, just lots of people chiming in with the same problem.
Gee, Number, I said ‘in the future’ which means it’s not need for this one…e.g means ‘for example’, & I gave an input example.
Plus lots of topics do come up you do have to wade through them though.