I would not stay with IE6 google has just put out info it will no longer support IE6 and many other websites have gone along with them on that it is just too hard for them to continue to support so many versions, go to IE7 or 8 or as mentioned above go with firefox also but you still need to move away from Ie6 on your pc because it is very insecure so even if you do not use it you need to update it. I use firefox only unless I have to do a windows update that is the only time I use IE but I do still keep it updated. Gmail, Google Calendar Also To Drop IE6 Support Google Phasing Out Support For IE6 in 2010 that should be good evidence as to why it needs to be replaced.

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I'll tackle this next week. And Genes, I leave the auto-update on because it really is very convenient. I'm not sure this problem had anything to do with that because they have been begging me to download IE7 for months--but they never did it without my permission before. I still have not installed it or decided to. Just don't want any headaches I can't fix.

Motive SB.exe Apparently that is usually program provided by an isp to help set up your connection and for trouble shooting problems with them. You absolutely dont need it,,, you can always install it later if you should. If you have some ISP Support software in your Add/Remove programs you might need to uninstall it. If not there remove Motive something from the start up or run list.

Ravencajun/genes: I cleaned up a few problems with TrendMicro but am not sure if that software works right. After cleaning some spyware, it went back to "Step 1: preparing" status/mode which I thought would be followed by yet another system scan in order to show that there was nothing on the PC then. But... it stayed "preparing" until I got tired of that and X'ed out the IE Window. It never went to Step 2 (scanning) or 3 (removing infections). Question #1: Did it do that to you too after it cleaned up infections? I also installed SpywareBlaster but was "left hanging". Maybe it is that I am not familiar with the program yet. Once it installed, I expected that it would scan my system but it just finished installing and that was that. Question #2: does install not scan your PC automatically? Then I looked for a way to force to scan my PC but did not find a way. All I managed to do was pick up some updates. My IE, restricted Sites and Mozilla Firefox Protection settings are set to 'Protection Enabled' with a status of 0 items have protection disabled. I am guessing that if it comes across some spyware because it is activated or downloaded or whatever, it will stop it; but if there was something already on the PC it will not tell me about it. Question #3: Is that right? Question #4: what do I do about IE7's crashes now? Do I need to delete it & reinstall it after those spyware infections were removed by TrendMicro? TIA, Luis