Can't get gnucash to start on Windows

[David Rush]

Hi.  I'm new to gnucash.

I've installed 2.2.9 on Windows XP.  It offers to start gnucash at the end of the installation, and I keep that checked, but it never starts.

When I try starting from either the desktop icon or from the Start,Programs menu, I get the gnucash splash screen for an instant, I see another window start to open, but it closes before it even gets done drawing and the splash screen goes away.  This all happens in a second or two.  No overt error messages.

Task manager shows that I get a gnucash-bin.exe for a fraction of a second, then I'm left with two gconfd-2.exe processes for a while (several seconds at least) before they quietly disappear.

I have several gnucash.trace.* files in my tmp directory now, all of them 0 bytes in size.  I also have a gconfd-Username directory, and for the several seconds while the two gconfd-2.exe processes are still around there's a lock directory with an ior file in it.  Once the gconfd-2.exe processes disappear, so does the lock directory.

I did have the MS Visual C++ 2005 redistributable package installed.  I've recently installed the 2008 redistr. package, but it made no obvious difference.

Help!

David