Hello, This Happy 99 is more of a nuisance and annoyance rather than a virus. After saving it, I scanned it for viruses before opening and it passed the test. And my computer did not show any viruses upon start up yesterday or this morning. It appears to be a poorly written part of an ad with an animated attachment - and automatically attaches itself to your outgoing email messages. You won't see it or be aware of it until a recipient brings it to your attention. And when you open your sent message - the Happy 99 attachment appears to your surprise. The following is a message which Rootsweb sent a friend of mine infected with Happy 99 when she tried sending a message to the Jefferson County OH message group: 'The message you submitted to this list (included above) wasn't sent to the list subscribers. RootsWeb accepts only plain text mail. That means that HTML mail, attachments, ``enriched text'', and a few other formats can't be sent to RootsWeb mailing lists. You can post your message if you send it in plain text; turn off the ``Post in HTML'' or ``Enriched Text'' features of your mail reader, or don't use any attachments. See http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/listowners/html-off.htm for instructions on turning off HTML in most of the popular mail programs, or ask your ISP's technical support line for help. We've had to institute this policy because of the problems that accompany these fancy mail formats. Some people don't have mail programs that are capable of processing the special file formats. Even among those who do, different mail programs handle these special formats in very different and confusing ways. HTML messages pose special problems to our digested mailing lists. Most of all, HTML-ified mail and attachments place a considerable burden on RootsWeb's overworked machines. All in all, mail in this format produces a lot of problems for RootsWeb's servers and subscribers, so we find it's best just to use plain text. -- The RootsWeb staff" And here is an example of the html code on Happy 99 which appears in messages as well: > begin 644 Happy99.exe > M35I0``(````$``\`__\``+@`````````0``:```````````````````````` > M``````````````````````$``+H0``X?M`G-(;@!3,TAD)!4:&ES('!R;V=R > M86T@;75S="!B92!R=6X@=6YD97(@5VEN,S(-"B0W```````````````````` > M```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` > M```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` > M````````````````````````````````````````55!%``!,`00`GR77C@`` > M````````X`".@0L!`AD`"@```!8```````````$````!`````@```$`````! > M```"```!``````````,`"@`````````%```$`````````@``````$```(``` > M```0```0````````$``````````````````#`$`#````````````````````" Hope this explains what I've encountered. Excellent advise from Charlie's about updating your virus scan software every 3 months. Did mine in Dec. 98 - almost time again. Wishing everyone a virus-free year! Julia