Okay, using the Firefox "troubleshooter" I went to plug ins and set and changed "shock waver" from always on to ask. All seems much better - so far. Right now the CPU Utilization is so low the processor speed, a slow 1.4 Ghz is backing down to slower speeds to save power, this is a Laptop and does what it can to extend battery life even if the A/C is attached, or so it seems. I tried to view a video on Youtube and it asked me to enable Shock Wave, I did and the video play normally and the CUP utilization was still well below the old 90% level. This my be the culprit - I wonder what IE does about Shock Wave, I'll try to find out later. Another mystery: HOW DO I BOOT IN SAFE MODE in W8? Yes I know I'm shouting but that's how I feel about Microsoft at the moment, maybe a Mac is in my future, when I'm "rich and famous".

you should not lose anything it is just an update version you should be able to just go to the update button on your current firefox and check for updates then select to allow it to update, you will have to shut down and restart firefox once it is done, there are some differences but not that major and there are ways to change the things to look like they did in 2.0 there is a thread on here somewhere that I put a lot of links on to make those changes. (you can search for it) they are ending support for version 2 in the very near future (weeks) so everyone should begin to read up on it and plan on the update. there are a few add ons that are not yet compatible with 3 but 3 has been out so long now that many have already become compatible. I always back up at least my favorites file before doing a version update and sometimes my profile also, to do your favs back up just go to bookmarks, organize bookmarks, click on export, it will open up your storage area on your pc simple save the bookmarks file to some place on your pc or on your desktop where you will remember where it is, that way should anything go wrong you have your bookmarks file right there saved to put into the new version. That is why I really like the add-on foxmarks, it saves all your bookmarks to online, you have a free account, you can log in to it from any where and have access to all your favs, and if you should ever have something happen to your firefox everything is still right there on your foxmarks account and can be synced right back to your browser, and every time you add a new bookmark foxmarks syncs up with the online one and puts them there also. Profiles How to Back up Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird this is an older article but shows some of the differences Review of some changes in Firefox 3 one of the big differences is the URL bar on 3 if you don't like it you can change that too Firefox 3: Make Address Bar Behave Like Firefox 2

Follow the directions below we can see what is running: Click Here to download HJTInstall.exe Download the Installer on that page Version 2.02 right hand side click Installer.. Save HJTInstall.exe to your desktop. Doubleclick on the HJTInstall.exe icon on your desktop. By default it will install to C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis . Click on Install. It will create a HijackThis icon on the desktop. Click on the Do a system scan and save a logfile button. It will scan and the log should open in notepad. Click on "Edit > Select All" then click on "Edit > Copy" and Paste the entire contents of the log (no attachments) into your next post. DO NOT use the AnalyzeThis button, its findings are dangerous if misinterpreted. DO NOT have Hijackthis fix anything yet. Most of what HJT lists will be harmless or even required by your Operating System. Then do this below: Double click the hijackthis Icon on the Desktop, Scroll down to "Open the Misc Tools section" Click it at the bottom under System tools click "Open Uninstall Manager" over to the right click "Save List" Save it to your Desktop so you may find it, copy and paste it in your next reply..

Raven, thank you. I sent all of this post to my tech and hope he reads it. I'm scared as I still have XP, and although I love IE because it is what I've always used, I am now using Firefox. I did go in and change the settings so it can't automatically upgrade. When I went to try to find out what "version" of Firefox my tech had installed, it looked like it was trying to update something. I got out of that fast. LOL My tech is looking around to get me a new computer as mine will soon be 10 years old. I am going to hate giving up my XP, but I will have no choice.