When you click Start and then click My Computer, or when you double-click My Computer on your Windows desktop, Windows may search (a flashlight may appear) for a long time (for example, 5 minutes) before files appear. To resolve the problem, try this:

- Click Start, Run and type Services.msc
- In the Services (Local) list, right-click Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), and then click Stop

To accomplish this via command-line:
- Click Start, Run and type CMD and press Enter
- Run these commands one by one and press Enter:

NET STOP STISVC (This stops the service)
SC CONFIG STISVC START= DISABLED (This sets the Service startup type to disabled)

Source: http://windowsxp.mvps.org