mikie: "You might look online to see if you have the actual email account there & perhaps your missing mails are there ... Outlook.com" Thanks for the link. Yes, it looks like I do have an account there; but the missing emails aren't there, either - just the one 'welcome' type of email from Outlook. "Windows 8 has a Mail application in the new modern tiles ." Yep, I tried accessing that dozens of times; but each time I log in to set up a new account it says I already have an account. And this started before I even opened up the Outlook account. That's all I get from that page as I'm just stuck in a black hole after that. Not literally black, but just the page where it says set up your account, and nothing else - no backing up into the previous page, or going forward - such is Windows 8 - ha. As far as having the three malware programs; I have all 3 on my laptop and haven't encountered any problems with spyware/malware since installing them a couple of years ago - in combination with MSE. They all seem to work very well together. I put them on my laptop after having a couple of infections. Also, since uninstalling McAfee on W8 earlier today, the internet is now zipping along (knock on wood). Thanks for your advice everyone.

I have that problem every once in a while, except only for the Volume, the Safely Add/Remove is always there. I Googled and found the solution Mikie mentioned, for the Volume. It works, for a while, then the V button is gone again. System Restore always said no changes had been made. I've found that rather than going through the Options, a cold reboot will usually work. About the Safely A/R button: does anyone ever use it? DA, I remember from 'way back when there was a thread about that Invisible line. I think I found it then, but never have since then. Computers . . . aren't they fun? When you are having a bad day, try this link. I guarantee you will have a smile on your face, or maybe even LOL! Do get the large screen and have the Volume on; if yours is working. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: Run, Rabbit, Run

if he goes to the link in my post that is labeled Analysis and Malware removal, at LzD, they will assist him in removal, he will need this type of assistance or it will not be gone as you found out previously. The infection will definitely prevent you from trying to install new programs that would try to remove it, that is a normal tactic for these infections, it will also render your current programs to not function properly so it is questionable whether or not your Norton is able to function as it should since the infection has likely altered it. AVAST is free but you can NOT have 2 antivirus programs running on the pc at the same time so unless you have removed the Norton you do not want to install any other antivirus programs. The malwarebytes is ok to install and run and definitely should be run if the infection will allow it. The LzD link I provided can assist in getting the pc to allow the programs to be installed and run. As shown on the siri.urz blog cyber security is one of the current known fake AV infections, it is not easy to eliminate and need the use of specialized programs and tools with analysis. Cyber Security is a fake security application. for an idea of just how many of these things are out there that we fight daily just scan through that blog! Here is a link that might be useful: blog

@ aputernut Was that a stream-of-consciousness moment ? There's like about a 100 words there, with no punctuation, no sentence capitalization, nothing . . . How are we supposed to parse something like that ? lol Btw, the way that link was made, it only goes to ehow.com . I did take a look though . . . as you probably know, ehow.com is by no means a tech site. They have people employed to dream up things to write "how-to" articles about, a lot of it being almost copy & paste. They may be correct on some points, but it's hardly a definitive or authoritative site for tech info.