It's not in the Control Panel under Add/Remove. I have already tried a System Restore, to no avail but I only went back to the first of this year. We have had this "red box" for about a year and it disappeared for months. It reappeared AFTER I did the system restore. Witz, my son is a computer person and he ran Spybot last night and deleted some registry files. He is the one that said it was Pandora PC. I don't know how he knew. The little red box is next to the date/time (in the right corner.) DA, no one uses this computer except my husband and I and we are both old and retired, so no need to spy on each other, LOL. The reason I said it "piggybacked" in on something we may have downloaded is because of what I read on the internet, that being..."downloading freeware or shareware can be bundled with spyware, adware or programs like PC Pandora. Sometimes it's attached to the free software to "pay" developers for the cost of creating software and more often spyware is secretly and maliciously attached to free software to harm your computer and steal your personal & financial information." Maybe we have downloaded some freeware that might be our problem? I hope we can get rid of this too, as it's really slowing our computer down. I did find some instructions (see link below), I'll wait until my son has a chance to come back to our house, for fear I might do something to damage our computer. Dee Here is a link that might be useful: How to Detect & Remove PC Pandora

If you have your key Microsoft might supply you with an XP disc. From their forum: Subject: Re: repairing without the cd? 6/27/2006 1:15 PM PST By: Jupiter Jones [MVP] In: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics If the computer was bought used with no CD and not OEM, there is a high probability it is pirated. 2nd hand computers are sold far to often with pirated Windows, almost always without the buyers knowledge. But for now there are insufficient facts posted by you to come to any conclusion about this computer. If your son bought the computer new with Windows installed, it is OEM and legitimate as long as the source is legitimate. Check the manual and/or contact the manufacturer for repair options. Some OEMs provide few options with the only option often being a Clean Installation. Sometimes the OEM can provide a replacement CD. If Windows XP is retail, Microsoft may be able to replace the CD: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326246 -- Jupiter Jones [MVP] http://www3.telus.net/dandemar http://www.dts-l.org and The product key is the constant. It enables the install (or repair install). The serial number is generated randomly during the install process. So, yes, they're connected but he needs the product key to install or repair install. If he install XP from a retail copy, the product key is included in the box with the CD. If from an oem copy and Windows XP was preinstalled, there should be a sticker with the prodcut key somewhere on the PC. The sticker is placed somewhere on the PC tower for desktop units and found on the bottom of laptops. If a person has their product key, they can use that and any XP cd of the same type (retail or generic oem) to reinstall. If there's a specialized oem CD (HP, Compaq, etc) that has been bios locked to one particular system - it gets tricky. Some of these will only install on the original system. Some will install but require a phone call to activate. Best practice here is to use what the OEM supplied and if a CD is missing, contact the OEM about obtaining a replacement. Some oem systems have recovery/restore procedures that are different or in addition to the methods offered by just XP. For example- pressing F10 during boot time on an HP or Compaq system is likely to start their Oem supplied recovery application. If the system documentation is unavailable to your son, copies are most likely downloadable from the oem. The documentation will inform about any special recovery options that are available and how to use them. -- Sharon F MS-MVP Windows Shell/User ............................................................. I had problems with XP when my hard drive failed and I had to have my product code key...to get help from Microsoft and they had all my info from 2 years back. They verified my copy of Windows and made sure there were no duplicated keys...it took about an hour of waiting. I stupidly assumed that meant the disc. The big deal is the key. Mikie is probably right about active tracking, but they hold on to your registration information as long as the product is supported. The validation tool kinda backfired on them, I don't even know they still use it. Still, you do not want to see that balloon stating that your XP is not genuine. So I'm error, you can use a similar disc if you have your own and enter your personal proof of purchased valid key. My advise is don't get caught sharing keys...if you do... just don't get caught. Microsoft is a bit over the top when it comes to copy protection.

I have verizon cell service and texting and no internet. I can forward a text on to my email address and it is only considered texting. I just input my email address instead of a phone number in the to field so maybe your cell provider works the same way with texting. I can also send back from my email as text. For verizon in the to field for just plain text you can use yournumber@vtext.com and if you want to attach a photo then you use yournumber@vzwpix.com. I know that you can also do this with AT&T service both ways, just need to now the @ part for AT&T because I have sent from email to a friends phone on AT&T that has texting and she has sent back to my email as text. I would thing other major carries can do this also. Mary

If they have no antivirus protection on the pc the first thing to do is get that set up and installed but do not run a scan yet. I prefer Avast free over AVG but if you choose to do AVG I would go with the light install without the add on stuff. AVG 8.0 Free Edition FAQ I would do disc clean and or cccleaner(not registry cleaning) first so you get rid of any unnecessary files, then get and install superantispyware free, install, update run full scan let it clean what it finds. go on line to this site and let it run a scan. Get a FREE Online Virus Scan get and install spywareblaster, update and enable all protection. I would not get ADAware or spybot. Instead I would get malwarebytes. Scans should be run weekly with superantispware and malwarebytes. Once all that is done they can set the AV to do a scan when the pc is not active. If they get Avast on the download page on the left is the pdf manual for install and user info follow those instructions including how to register it. SUPERAntiSpyware SpywareBlaster 4.1 Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop. * Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program. * At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish. * If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. * Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan. * When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results. * Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. avast! 4 Home Edition - FREE antivirus make sure they have an active firewall or else turn on the windows firewall. And are current with windows critical updates. After all is cleaned I would do a defrag. Note if they have an AV program on the pc of course it must be fully removed before another program can be installed and run.