i followed the link supplied by Remoc and tried one of the options that worked for another poster (a nasty fellow who was downloading child porn - lol) agonizing over a similar problem of undeletable files. the program is called "unlocker" and it worked quickly to remove the file without anything else needing to be done. so, newuser75, it might work for you too. and Remoc, thanks a million. you have no idea how worried i was - wondering what kind of trouble i'd downloaded! i had no idea how useful this forum would be (wasn't expecting much help, really), but i'm ever so grateful for your advice.