grandms Your input is just as appreciated and welcome as everyone's! I saw where Zep and Raven had already posted and I thought that the chances were good that they would return to the thread. I value everyone and their answers equally. 8)

Susie, I have searched & can't find any Avast on it. I also went into the folders. I just did a search on this one & there is quite a bit Norton leftover on it still. AVG is on too & was working when I stopped using this one. I hope to have another one Monday if everyone would just get well..I don't drive (never learned) & all my rides are truly sick. Cat, I think I will try the XP tonite. I do know it has a LOT of problems & need to be started over..it is not worth spending $150 to do that. Nite before last I was trying to fill out a form to order something.. it took over 30 minutes to do it.. The cursor kept freezing plus it wouldn't scroll without freezing. Some on here can vouch for all the problems I have had. If I can get it running I can at least check to see if there is anything else I want saved. I tried to keep things saved as I knew this day was coming. Yes I know now the APC is probably why it wouldn't turn on but I don't think that had anything to do with the other problems. The XP took about 20 minutes to reboot.. this 98 is very fast doing it. Thanks, Dar

I am still using 4.8 there is no big rush to go to 5 since 4.8 will be supported for quite some time, I personally like to wait a while and let them iron out all the bugs, let the ones that rush in find out all the problems, before I update. There have been several significant bugs popping up that they are working on and fixing. Some may have no problem at all where as some might never know since every system is different. I posted about some of them on the AVAST5 thread here. So that decision is totally up to you. You can put 5 over 4.8 as part of it's install process it will remove the old version however many people prefer doing a removal first, you will get both answers on this one.

I sometimes speak up concerning others' suggestions that seem like Chicken Little-type fear mongering. I also think too many people have too many unsupported fears of unlikely risks on the internet and from PC use in general. I'm generally in agreement with Kudzu's comments, but let's be realistic - no one knows what the evil doers will do. Using an XP PC on a network that's unconnected to the internet - I'd say zero risk. Use it in full confidence until the hardware dies. Using an XP PC on the internet? Time will tell. Having capable firewalls, updated security software, etc., is a must for all PCs with all operating systems anyway. I have an XP PC that I use very occasionally that has all the protection reasonably available. I'll be sure to remove any personal info and will use it carefully. If I see any hint of odd activity, I'll just replace it. For most PCs old enough to have XP, spending good money to put a newer Windows on old hardware seems a poor choice to me.