At 04:48 PM 05/20/2000, Mari wrote: *************START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT************* At 10:56 PM 5/19/00 -0400, George W. Durman wrote: Final opinion: (snip) 3) Norton causes conflicts on many systems when using Windows; (snip) SgtGeorge Ummmm....but my Norton doesn't conflict?! Course, I have Windows 98.... Mari **************END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT************** Notice I said "many", not "all". (GRIN) I know users who have NEVER had a conflict between Norton and Windows; on the other hand, I know many whose systems just wouldn't work properly with Norton installed. And, it's not just Norton; another program that causes lots of headaches for many users is "Nuts & Bolts". There are several of these "Jack of all trades" utilities, that, if allowed to load into memory when Windows starts, cause all kinds of conflicts, with video cards, sound cards, etc. There are no hard and fast rules. What works for one person may not work for another. While we're on it, let me give you an example of a tiny utility that I installed for Windows - "TClock Ex". If you look down in the corner , you will see a "clock" that shows you the time; passing the mouse cursor over it pops up the day and date. Well, I installed TClock and it was just what I needed to see the day, date, AND time all at once, neon green letters on a black background. Takes up very little memory or Resources. But, for many weeks I couldn't do a "defrag" because the system kept "changing" files (writing to the hard drive) while defrag was trying to run. Anyway, I finally figured out by process of elimination that TClock was the culprit. I don't know WHY, but it evidently writes to the hard drive, almost constantly. When I exited from it, defrag worked fine! Just another one of those things that give us headaches. One other I found that interfered with "defrag" was the Microsoft "Critical Update" thingy that you can download from the Windows Update pages. If you install it, it is put into your Task Scheduler, and (I think) the default is that it checks your system every 5 minutes. Anyway, with it in the Task Scheduler, defrag would run for 5 minutes, then start over when Critical Update "checked" the system. I had to phone Gateway and talk to a technician to find out that Critical Update was causing the problem. I just un-installed it, long ago. Conclusion? The latest versions of Norton's AV program, disk utilities, "tool boxes", etc., may not be the bugaboos they once were. This is a distinct possibility, since it would be logical for them to correct the earlier "conflict" bugs/glitches. When it gets down to the "nitty gritty", the only thing you can do is "try it out". If it causes problems with your particular computer and setup, then you will either have to uninstall it, or contact the tech reps to find out how to overcome the problems. Sometimes the tech reps for the software can help; sometimes the tech reps for your computer system can help. In my case, I have learned to call Gateway if I have problems. (Bought this system last August.) Every person there I have talked to knows hardware AND software in detail - very knowledgeable customer support reps. This is getting long, but just thought of a couple of other things that can go wrong, things that you MIGHT blame on installing new software. 1) Shortly after getting this system, I lost ALL sound! Everything was checked and double-checked. NO SOUND! The sound card was installed properly; the proper drivers were loading with Windows; they were the latest drivers. NO ONE could help! Then, one day I just happened to open Creative Launcher (the control panel for my sound system). I looked around through it and guess what! There's a place to check to enable sound or to disable it!!!!! Somehow, Windows had unchecked the "enable sound"! Windows could have done it on its own, or, as I really suspect, some sound program I installed turned it off for some reason. 2) A colleague at work lost all his sound a couple of weeks ago. When he asked me what could cause that, I didn't remember the same problem I had experienced! (Memory is going.) Anyway, he took the system to the store where purchased it and was charged $108.00 for the diagnostics. Again, guess what! Same thing! His sound was disabled! So, we may think we know what is causing problems, but we might be wrong. I use Paint Shop Pro (PSP) and have had a problem with it for several weeks now. When I scan a black and white document, PSP shows the document with black text, but with a GREEN background, instead of WHITE. I'm still working on this one. SgtGeorge