Urlee...I do all that sort of stuff with my Outlook Express also....I have Outlook Express on one computer (and love it) and have Windows Live on the other and it's no fun at all... maybee, I am so sorry and sympathize with you as I felt horrible about WLM as you could tell at the start of this thread. Now I have to confess I like it as well (almost) as I do Outlook Express as I am finding (after learning) I can do the same as I do in OE. There are a few differences just done in a different way.

DA, If I'm right in knowing which tension causing member (TCM) you're referring to, I think he is motivated to help and not to cause tension. For some, any difference of opinion causes tension, whether that's intended or not. But paradoxically as your later comment concerning hypersensitivity and PC-ness shows, some differences of opinion can be difficult to wrap in a pillow and so it is. I think TCM tries to be polite. TCM has observed a lot of well-intentioned advice and recommendations in this forum that seem more akin to folk remedies than well accepted, mainstream advice. TCM seems to speak up in such cases, and in doing so perhaps (undeliberately) rattled a few cages of those who had become folk medicine dispensers and followers without knowing it. I think there are some who think some of the PC folk medicine that has been entrenched here is real medicine and some don't know the difference.

As usual I found how to change it...........I think!

What JEMDANDY suggests concerning the firewalls is a huge problem these days and unless you check for it occasionally, it sneaks up on you. Here's another possibility: I don't know if your particular anti-virus program uses Sun Belt antivirus technology. If you check your task manager and see something similar to SBAMsvc.exe then, you are using it. That particular antivirus is dynamic where it checks all opened files and incoming email for virus. Unfortunately, it is also a resource hog. I'm not saying other programs don't cause the same problems. I am just particularly familiar with this one since they provide programming for a lot of the antivirus packages out there. If another company is used, the below would still help you see if that is your problem. You probably notice the hangups when you have incoming mail with attachments, especially large ones. All the resources are being used to check the mail and even a ctrl-alt-del doesn't have an impact. It actually will but it has to wait in line for it to get it's allocation of resources to launch. Sometimes you'll see your email request time out. Of course, not having an antivirus checker for email is like walking through a mall in your underware. However, the best way to see if this is your problem is to go into your antivirus software settings and turn off email checking. Once the mail has transferred over, turn it back on. This would be AFTER you have done what JEMDANDY has suggested and still have the problem. If indeed this resolves your problem you have 2 choices....do this every time before calling for your mail or, add more memory. It's unfortunate that we have to "retool" our equipment to use a product that is supposed to be helping us protect and utilize what we have. However, with the sophistication of malware and Virus attacks, the products protecting us from them have become more and more resource dependent, to keep up. You also really need to clean out your temporary internet and cache files as well as cookies. This can do the same thing you describe if they get too large.