Question : During log in, Windows Red Shield pops up-says I have no firewalll-then finds it-running XP and AVG-start up programs missing?

Running XP Home on Acer laptop. Upon login. A Windows red shield pops up saying I have no firewall. This is in the lower-right icons on bottom. Then, after a minute, it says OK, finds my Windows Firewall and resumes.
I have windows firewall on and I shut off the avg one.
This happened during a time when I installed the new free AVG and was toggling off/on my start up services.

I never had it appear before. Any ideas.

Answer : During log in, Windows Red Shield pops up-says I have no firewalll-then finds it-running XP and AVG-start up programs missing?

Windows takes a few minutes to finish loading all services.  It depends on your speed of your cpu, speed of your hard drive and how much RAM you have.

Try removing the free AVG and see what happens.  If problem persists, do a defrag analyze and defrag the hard drive if it needs it that will speed up the Windows loading.