The Handle Is Invalid Error on Startup

I don't think I have seen this one before, so we had better start with basic principles.

1) does Quicktime work normally? iTunes will not work if Quicktime doesn't.

2) open the task manager>processes tab and try to start iTunes. Does iTunes.exe appear and if so, does it go away or does it remain although iTunes does not open?

Then if Quicktime works, try following this troubleshooting method.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1421

The first step in the method is to find out if the problem is specific to one user or system wide.

The system wide troubleshooting refers to malware, malware is an important source of trouble with iTunes and you need to be sure that your system is clean.
It would be a good idea to download malware bytes and run as full scan, it is free.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Unfortunately you cannot assume the problem is system wide if you only have one account. You will need to create a new account, this is because there may be things in your account that upset iTunes and creating a new account is the simplest way of testing for this.

Once you know if the problem is system wide or account specific you need to work systematically thought the appropriate suggestions in the troubleshooting method.

Like I said originally I don't have any experience with this error and Google doesn't help much. It seems to occur in a number of different situations.

Do you have any other problems with your PC?

As you have XP, I guess your PC is quite old, have you been to the manufacturer's support site to see if there are any diver updates for you particular PC. It is probably worth checking that you are completely up to date.

Also could you go to your event viewer immediately after you get your error message and see if there are any more specific error messages there.

You can access the even viewer by right clicking on My Computer and selecting Manage.

P.S. Did the uninstall go through without any errors? - i.e. it was just the reinstall that was a problem.

Message was edited by: polydorus

"The Handle is Invalid" with and "OK" button and that is all.

Just checking something, mb. Are any other programs failing to install or run on your PC at the moment? Or is it just iTunes that you're getting the message with?