Neal I take it you are a little intimidated with the inner workings of your computer? Nothing wrong with that. I was terrified the first few times I took the side cover off. However you must decide if you are going to get past that and fix it. You have asked for help and it has been given but you do not appear to have tried many of the suggestions so far, or have not told us what happened when you did try things. So far we know you cannot use Internet Explorer so you cannot download and install necessary updates from Microsoft. Nor can you go to online scans because most if not all of those are set up for IE. We know your AVG is at least 6 months out of date and the wrong version making it vitually useless. We know you do not have a firewall so anybody and everybody with the savvy can (and probably have) attack your computer and the dozens of phone home spies installed on your machine are taking possession. We know you cannot get to anti virus sites, for me that says virus's and trojans are in control of your computer. At this state it is pointless to worry about if your teenager's actions have caused the problems. Those actions may not have helped but the responsibility here is yours because you failed to take precautions needed for safe computing. From the computer you are using to post here download the free AVG 7.5 from here then from here download the free AVG anti spyware and from here download the free AdAwareSE and from here download the free Zonealarm firewall and finally from here download Crap Cleaner. Save all these to a thumb drive or burn to CD. Now on your computer and remove the cable to the internet for now. Then click Start, click Control panel, click Add/Remove programs. Remove AVG, AdAware and anything else that pertains to safety but is out of date. Install and run Crap Cleaner at the default settings, this will remove all the excess files and fragments of programs left by untidy uninstallers from all over your computer. Install AVG anti virus, AVG anti spyware, AdAware and Zonealarm. Allow each to do a full scan while still disconnected from the internet and allow Zonalarm to start. Then re-connect your internet connection and open each of these programs and get the latest updates. Then run the full scan with each again. Then visit Microsoft for all the Windows updates you are missing, I asume you have WindowsXP? Now Neal, if you are fearful of any of this say so and hopefully another poster will come along and tell you that what I have suggested will work - or disagree and tell you different things to try. There is nothing in this message to harm your computer.

Hi Chelone, What's with the listing of your magazines? Was that meant for this thread? Or are you saying that all of those are your cause for belief that "deregulation in banking has encouraged the shocking lending practices that have lead to the present circumstance."? I'm sorry I screwed your name up. I'm usually pretty good about that, and historicially I've been "on the money" with your's, I think. No worries, no offense taken (the mix-up, as I stated, is so extremely common outside of written communications that I'm virtually never offended by it... no even when an offender points out in hindsight that she *MEANT* it to be offensive at the time ;~) I'm either thick-skinned, or thick-skulled (depending who you ask) that way. My own philosophy about investing (WHEN and how) is very different than your's, Dave (sorry again!). I believe in retiring debts efficiently before the term. What do you believe in when the term is too short to efficiently eliminate the leverage, in respect to a person's actual life (not the arbitrarily set term of the loan)? My own portfolio has seen a downturn, but not a terribly precipitous one, frankly. Mostly, I think, because I have paid my major debts in full and now have the option of directing current contributions (that would have be directed to debt/interest payments) to longer term investments. If you look at a comparison of a pre-funded sum growing on a compounding basis (even minus the interest charges considered if the funds were from leverage,) versus a "drip-funded" scheme of the same monthly payment... you'll apparently be quite surprised at how dangerous the "eliminate the leverage, then drip the investment" strategy actually is. I am reasonably certain you will find fault with it all. I'm OK with that. I know that the properties I own are owned "free and clear". I know also that my portfolio is reasonably (within my "risk toleranace") conservative relative to the times frames I have in mind. I'm glad to know you are blissful. ;~) "Broadbrush" is workin' just fine for me. I'll keep that in mind when I see future claims or statements, and pull in the reigns of my accuracy expectations. Here's to your blissful seasons; that you are confronted by no surprises you weren't anticipating, and that you remain safe without having to be aware! Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

You may be someone who would never lose their job or default on the loan, but to the bank, your numbers just don't add up. Giving loans to people with poor ratings is what got us into this mess. If you don't have enough to put down for a conventional loan, you don't have enough for a home needing renovations. And since you just moved, you don't have a long history at your job. You are an extremely high risk individual. You need to keep working and saving until you have enough money.

I use the mail tile on the "start" page. I have it set up with my email account thru the service provider, ie. @cox.net. I can go to my email account thru the browser, just like the 2 gmail accounts I have. I guess that would mean the settings in Control Panel need to be set to use my provider account. Ok, that gives me a place to set my feet to find out what I need to do. I recall that I set both my hubby's email accounts up thru the tile on start menu, as I did my own. I guess that is the default I need to set. The provider. I'll have to go look it over again, thanks so much for your help. I'm still learning the Win8 and it's way different from Xp and Vista. Will post back when I find what I need to do. Let you nice folks trying to help me know what I did or found out. Thanks so much for your time and thoughtfulness.