On starting the computer an error message appears advising that ‘ScannerFB has encountered a problem and needs to close’. This began after downloading a batch of Windows updates. I have read this problem is related to HP scanners, but I do not have an HP scanner connected to the computer and have never owned an HP scanner. Also, the updates downloaded from Microsoft had no connection with HP. How can I stop this error appearing on startup? The computer is running Windows XP.

The ScannerFB process is related to the hpScannerFirstBoot program and, as you mentioned, is therefore linked to HP (Hewlett-Packard) scanners. Since you do not have a HP scanner connected to the computer, or have ever owned an HP scanner, how this process loaded onto your computer is somewhat of a mystery. The most likely reason being perhaps that some other software which you installed loaded this process onto your computer. Furthermore, why the error message only started appearing after downloading Windows updates from the Microsoft website makes the situation even more strange! Despite this series of events, disabling the ScannerFB process should resolve the problem, and should also not result in any negative side-effects since you do not have an HP scanner connected to the computer which may need this process. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ‘msconfig’ (without the quotes) and click OK. In the System Configuration Utility window that appears, click the ‘Startup’ tab which lists all the processes and programs which load on Windows startup. Search the list for the ‘ScannerFB’ process, and then disable (untick) the process from loading on startup. Click OK to close and save, and then restart the computer. The ScannerFB process should no longer load, so the error message should not appear.