I got a call for help from a friend's mother -- totally computer illiterate. She has a new PC with problems; the shop she bought it from tell her that the hardware all checks out, but there's some sort of software incompatibility that she should have "someone who knows about this stuff" look at. I'm going to go over this weekend and get a whole lot more detail, but it sounds over the phone like she has a version of AOL that installs its own versions of many system files, and a version of XP Home that is choking on that. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Are there particular issues that I should be checking for? David Gillett The NOSPIN Group Promotions is now offering Mandrake Linux or Red Hat Linux CD sets along with the OpenOffice CD... at a great price!!! http://freepctech.com/goodies/promotions.shtml