Yeah, this HP I'm using right now is going back to Sam's, anyway, as soon as the new Dell I just ordered comes... HP has BURNED ITS BRIDGES with me... after 35 months as a customer with first one, then two computers registered in their database and me ALMOST ordering a replacement for this defective piece of DISPLAYWARE I unfortunately walked out of Sam's Club with, I flaked out of the sale in the middle of the "Checkout" process the other night because I had a couple "issues" I couldn't resolve online (primarily a LONG buildtime I couldn't understand) -- at which point their system popped up a little window asking if I was having a problem I couldn't resolve online and would like someone to call me, and if so, to leave my first and last name, and a phone number and click continue, which I did... then I made sure my "cart" was saved so I wouldn't lose the configuration I had set up, as it takes a few minutes to get one like you want it if you don't just want a stock system (and if I wanted that I'd buy the cheap junk they sell pre-built, like what I'm taking back, lol)... and then I closed the HP window and went about my business... When I hadn't had a call from HP by Monday night (that was Sunday night), I logged on last night to see what was going on, and it showed my cart was EMPTY (of course NAV ran in the interim, so my cookies probably got cleaned, but I DID have an account using my email address and a password, for like 3 years now), so I tried logging on, and my password didn't work... Well I have a few different ones, so I figured maybe I FORGOT which one I was using with HP, so I clicked the "forgot my password" link and plugged in my email address and they HAVE NO RECORD of my email address... So I called them up and talked to one of their sales people, and he searched the computer, and they have NO RECORD OF MY EMAIL ADDRESS, NAME, OR PHONE NUMBER (the primary ways they would have me referenced), which means they likely don't even have my current computer and monitor (the ones that are going back to Sam's and still have 10 months fo warranty left -- supposedly) in their database with my name on them any more. Well, THAT DID IT -- Dell got the sale... But now it's been more than 24 hours since I closed THAT sale, and although I immediately got an automatic email from THEM "acknowledging" the order, I've yet to get the "order confirmation" email, with the "order number" and my "customer number," etc. I just KNOW you folks didn't care about all this jazz, but I'm just SO freakin' frazzled and frustrated with these #$%^&* computer companies right now I could EAT A BULLFROG!!! :-P Somebody PLEASE "pass me a Coke and a smile" or SOMETHING! :) At any rate, with this HP Media Center that's going back to Sam's (not ONE, but TWO defective CD drives, and a cordless mouse that eats batteries like CHEESE), the FIRST THING I did when I got it was create the System Restore disks and Restore it to factory condition (considering it had been a display model for like 8 months, I thought that was QUITE PRUDENT, huh?)... So that's happening AGAIN before it goes back to Sam's, so they don't get anything I paid for, lol, and in the case I.E. 7 DID cause any problems, they'll all go bye-bye... And I'm guessing if this new Dell system EVER DOES "confirm" and ship, it'll COME with I.E. 7, so I really won't have to worry about it, since I really won't have a choice, lol. Ummmmmmmmm, anyone wanna give me a ride to the funny farm so I don't have to leave the car there? :-P

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.

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

Thanks, RC. With so many threads missing, I admit I didn't do the search I usually do before posting. I will work on your replies to my issues and let you know what happens. Thanks again.