Checking with the school or the major department (to see if there is a specific reason for or against a particular choice) is a good idea. My own family's experiences, which includes a total of 6 undergrad and grad program starts, was that 1) Not surprisingly, all schools and programs could accommodate and provide tech support for both Mac and Windows machines. All 6 could provide software either for free or with heavy discounts and left the choice of flavor up to the student with no specific recommendation, and 2) While all schools offered "special pricing" for purchases from the school/student store, none required it. None of the school "deals" we encountered were ever particularly competitive, I was always able to get more value for money from normal sources. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some photo/graphics or art programs that may be Mac only. You'll learn if one of those special situations applies by asking.

Sorry, I've been away a bit. To take your comments in order, Kudzu: Well, I'm glad to know it isn't something MS is doing, but there is really no way someone could have gotten access to my computer, unless they came in as a burglar and left no other signs. We have very few guests, and the layout of the house makes it impossible for anyone to enter the computer room without our knowing it. I'm beginning to lean more and more to your second suggestion, that the files came along with something else I downloaded. I did download a video on YouTube a few days ago, and now a search on the site doesn't bring it up anymore, which is strange. DA: I did click to see when some of the files were created. Several were from 2005 and 2006. Do those dates refer to the time they were "created" on my computer (though I do not think I had bought this computer yet in 2005--too lazy to go hunting for the receipt tonight), or to their original creation on someone else's? If it is when they got onto my computer and I just hadn't checked the All Users folder for such things, I am still left with the puzzle of why some got into my personal regular music folder. However, I usually access My Music through the Start menu, but I had gone through My PC>C:\, etc., when I came across this problem. Can it be that the files were there all along, as Gndms suggested, and I just never happened to notice them? (In that case, I will owe everyone an apology for taking your time, and also feel like the boy who cried wolf--though unintentionally!) So long as nothing sinister is going on, I will be content. RavenCajun: I ran scans as you suggested and all seems well there. However, yesterday I checked the History section of MSE and found this: But it wouldn't have anything to do with the strange files, would it? I am wondering how it "exploits" the computer and whether or not it did any exploiting of mine before it was detected and removed. This is the first time MSE has found anything "severe." Up till now, it has always been just cookies. Didn't find any suspicious log-on activity. RUBotted found nothing, too, but thanks for telling me about it; I have Bookmarked the site for future reference. When I checked the administrative tools and event viewer, there was a great long list of events listed as warnings, dating back to April of 2006, which I am assuming was when I bought the PC. All those "warnings" are scary. Can you tell me what they mean? Should I be doing something about them? Thank you all so much for helping me. Just as a final touch for my peace of mind, I am going to run Kaspersky's scan now.

I purged out a lot of my video stuff. I'm down to like 7 VHS tapes and that's stuff that I was involved in the production of. I was part of the tech crew on a local PBS production that is no longer in production. There are also a couple of other VHS that are not available in DVD... But pretty much all the VHSs I had are gone. And since I purged my old VHS player and never felt compelled (yet?) to replace it, I really would love to get what I do have on VHS onto DVDs and then I can actually watch them :) I also have (but it's in offsite storage and about to be purged in this next 30 days) a complete full set of pre-recorded VHSes of the Red Dwarf series. I'm giving these to a friend who really wants them and is a huge Red Dwarf fan. I've started to get them on DVD as they become available from the BBC. For DVDs, while I love movies, I'm not really good at re-watching a lot of movies. So unless it's a huge favorite, I find that I'll just rent them through my Freedom Pass thing at Blockbuster. But I own about 7 DVDs. When my ex and I split up in December, he took the lion's share of the DVDs that we had gotten together. He's much more of a movie watcher and also some of the titles were family or kids stuff that are for his kid or we watched as a family. For storage, I have a simple 5 shelf media rack that holds CDs, DVDs, and VHSes. It's not the best. But it's simple wood, with open slanted shelves. Stuff sometimes doesn't "sit" it in very well. But it seems to fit my needs. I've taken to putting those small "crate" looking like wood things on the shelves for cd storage specifically. This totally avoids stuff on the ends (cds) from sliding off (and falling) sideways through the bottom of a shelf. Most of what I have are CDs (music CDs). I have software CDs as well but those are stored in my home office and there's not many of them (under 20). Most have tar images online and often it's only install media that was burned just for a specific install. Which means I should purge them :) But music CDs, I do really need to purge. Between what I have in my office at work and what I have at home, some 200+ If I brought what I have at work home, I would be overflowing that rack. Time to purge. I also find my music tastes vary over time and season and moods, etc. So something that I'm not into this month, I've love the month after. I have started to rip and burn my own music. I have a subscription to Rhapsody.com. I just haven't mastered the whole process and often find that I simply love some of my favorite albums (on CD) that are bought as-is from the usual outlets. And many, many were bought YEARS ago. All the way back to the 80s :) I do play MP3s on my PDA. But nothing beats cranking up my old fashioned stereo at home. At work the speakers on my computer are "okay" but I listen often with headphones anyways. I eventually see that I will have a basic MP3 player plugged into my home stereo system. I'm in no rush though. It will happen when that time comes that I'm doing more rip'ing (to MP3) only and not as much burning to CD. Right now when I do rip something off a music streaming service, I tend to burn it onto CD as well. Well basically my media storage is a simple open rack. I too have a TiVo (in fact 3, including retired ones that I need to purge) and that is most of my TV viewing. I have all my shows set up and what doesn't get watched gets replaced automatically by newer incoming content. It is a wonderful way to go. Cheers, --jans

It was made for both of his daughters, months before the little girl died. So sad. He tells the story at the end how the song was made because of a bathtub story where the girls kept jumping out of the bubble bath, and he was frustrated. Then, he realized how there would not always be that time where he would get to spend with them, as his older kids were grown up a lot. He is such a wonderful singer and a wonderful Christian man. So sad. Here is a link that might be useful: You can let go...