Thank you so much for the information, both of you. I learn about 10 new things about computers everyday (I only remember one, of course) and as far as I'm concerned, that's the real reason for living...learning.

I upgraded to the beta LW, too, but it's about the only thing that was behaving on my machine. I had no clue that XP would replace a good dll with a corrupted one. That kind of amazes me, because I want to be able to make changes when I have to. The dll from work was good. I know you don't want ini files from other systems because they hold different configurations for peripherals and such, but aren't dll's fairly solid and unchanging. I don't know what I'm talking about of course. When I open ini files in a text format, it's really clear what it does. When I opened the dll, it was hiroglyphics. I shouldn't mess with things I don't know enough about.

But I'd like to tell you my system is running just great now. I cheated and went to Google and ran a search for Windows errors. I followed the link for RegistryFix.com which offered "free" software. I wrote them some feedback and chided them for the untruth in advertizing while praising them for fixing my system. The software was free, it just didn't do much unless you paid $37 for registering. If I'd been cool, I would've backed out and uninstalled it. I don't mind paying, I just want to be told there's a price for the fully functional version beforehand.

But here the darn program had found over 500 problems on the system, most of them files that no longer went where they belonged. So I paid, registered, scanned again and ran the fix. Oh, what a difference. I can get into the help files, the control panel, etc. without a hint of an error. And the program is right here for me to use again, if I make another mess of things.

I won't tell you how I ran the disk cleanup and uninstalled my video driver/program. It was called ProSavage for heaven's sake and had this monster fiery icon. I learned my lesson though, no more indiscriminate uninstalling. I'll go to Google and look each program up first. Oh, darn, I did tell you about it. Sigh. Thank goodness for the system restore!

Anyway, so much for adventures in broken computerland. I paid for this Nero DVD burning program to go with the free DVDShrink and now I want Alcohol120% instead. Getting your money back from a downloaded program is probably like pulling teeth, so I'll just bite the bullet. Do you think I should uninstall Nero? No one I've talked to at work has had a kind word for Nero. It was the straw last night that broke my computer's back. Plus I prefer programs that don't require a college education to run. I'm slightly dyslexic and technical writing gets all turned around in my head.

Well, I've written another book. I hope I did the right thing in installing and running the fix program. If you've heard anything negative about such programs would you let me know? And let me know how to avoid any pitfalls in them.

Thanks Sgt. and UK Bob (are you really in the United Kingdom? Too cool!)