Can you do this while unplugged from the internet? XBOX 's are built for computer transfers. Can you transfer a virus from the XBOX to the PC? I don't think so. That's not a very good answer is it? XBOX 360 can be hacked. The likely-hood of your son having a hacked XBOX without knowing this is slim to none. This is something that XBOX owners try to do. Cracking the XBOX 360 is analogous to cracking a game ...which is playing without paying. As far as Microsoft not getting viruses!? Microsoft is the king of viruses. That is their big numero uno problem and why we have a hundred or so updates in our Control Panel. Every patch and most updates represent a vulnerability exposed by hackers. Microsoft's track record is the worst in the industry. If you downloaded and saved to a disk what you wanted from the Microsoft sites and then did a data file transfer offline? You are going to need a gaming site to answer this question honestly. What your son wants to do is normal for the XBOX. This is not out of the ordinary at all. How risky is it? How risky is it when you turn your computer on...always very. Until I got my security up and running on my new hard drive...I was shocked at the amount of popups I got on my desktop!!! I wasn't even on the darn internet. But with the background process for IE always running for Windows you are accessible at startup. You are really going to need a game site. Your son might be right. XBOX360 and the computer are meant to go hand in hand and really hand in hand when Vista arrives. Computers will be able to challenge XBOXERs online with VISTA...yep we will abe able to play each other if we got the cash. Then on the other hand logistically it is scarry. You don't want to be vulnerable at any time your are hooked up to the internet. Try the "Forumz" at Tom's Hardware (which is a high tech computer site). If they don't know, no one knows. They have an XBOX section. I game at a minimum. Too minimum to answer this question. Here is a link that might be useful: Tom's Hardware XBOX Forum

Thanx Owbist I ran the sfc /scannow from the elevated command prompt and it said, "Window Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." Search coughed up the supposedly missing files. So either sfc put em back or they weren't gone anyway.So it would seem all is again under control. Maybe it was never out? :-)

Same thing happened to me at SW online. Over time I'm purchased 3 different paint software programs (BM, Lowes & PPG), so I could import photos of my own rooms. The downside to virtual paint software is that none are accurate to the real life swatch. Individual computer monitors and computer graphics cards are factors that contribute to the difference. On the positive side, the virtual programs are a blessing in that they can guide us to colors, shades, undertones that will work and show us clearly what won't work, then we can go and get real life swatches in those colors, narrow it down and get sample pots (or a quart if necessary), paint them on poster board and get to a color we're happy with, rather than taking a shot in the dark and risking a do-over ;)

I like Advanced SystemCare. Good program that let's you do a lot of things to help your system. I use the freebie but will probably send in a few bucks since it's so good. I also like Ccleaner lite. You don't need to run it every day. Once a month is a good idea. Or every couple months. It should be part of a maintenance program for the system. Run a spyware cleanup program or two and antivirus regularly. Always have a firewall running. Get Windows Updates regularly, keep virus and malware definitions updated. Avoid using problem programs and you'll be in pretty good shape. And of course, back up important files regularly!