Coho, I posted on the other thread before I saw this. Several years ago, I purchased a computer that had Norton installed. I could not burn a DVD on that computer until after I removed every trace of Norton. When I called Tech support at Norton, they told me that it was a known problem, and sent me a refund check. That was many years ago however, and I wouldn't think they would still be having that problem.

Sounds confusing. Word and Outlook are part of Office 2007 but Word is not part of Outlook. Sounds like you're looking for an external Read Only CD/DVD drive. Before buying one for the purpose stated you want to make sure that you can legally install Word from your DVD on a second computer. If it is already installed and validated on one computer it may not validate on a second so you would be unable to use it for long. You could consided downloading Open Office or one of the other free office programs and only installing the part that corresponds to Word.

Mike, I have an Inspiron 1545 - is this what you mean? Let me know if you need more info. I would still like to download the driver for my laptop, but how do I do that? I do consider myself "adventerous", but not when it comes to computers, haha. owbist: thanks so much for the info, but like I told Mike, I don't feel comfortable when working on the hardware in computers. This morning I'm NOT able to burn a CD, but right before that I was able to play a movie. I don't know what is going on. Now I'm sure I'm not able to watch a movie either. So, how do I "download" this driver file. I see it, and it is actually in my download folder, but when I try to download it, it says there are no files to download. When it says download, it says "save file", not RUN, like I want it too. Any suggestions on this? Thanks! I appreciate all the advice.

Pam, I am trying to remember my initial cleanup / setup procedure on the Asus because it was well over a year ago but it was along these lines (bear in mind that I delete files/programmes and edit the registry to eliminate as much rubbish as possible - which I don't recommend others to do!): Turn off Windows auto updates to stop it jumping online before you are ready. First priority - remove Norton before you go online otherwise it will auto-install. I definitely downloaded Norton's Uninstall programme from their site using my desktop computer and a usb stick. I can't remember the order in which I did the cleanup but it included run uninstaller; delete all Norton, Symantec and Liveupdate files, folders and registry entries. Normal Second priority (not sure if these were on the Asus) - remove trial versions of MS Office 2007 / Works. Turn on Asus Windows Firewall. Using desktop computer, get latest AVG onto usb stick and install on Asus. Asus will go online but will be protected. Install all your usual security programmes. Turn off Windows Firewall once your own is running. Turn on Windows updates and choose which ones to install (e.g not IE8???). Install Firefox, Thunderbird and anything else you want - there is plenty of room. (I use my Asus as a truly portable photo storage and video editing tool so I rapidly fill up my hard drive.) Emails on more than one computer always pose questions about which is the best way to do everything - security, synchronising, duplicates, which copy is in the master file, etc. The Asus, being small and very attractive to thieves when travelling, poses even more questions because email is a direct route to all your personal details. Even if you are exceptionally careful then e.g. your Bank's name together with the account number etc. that they sent you using their secure email when you signed up will probably still be in there. Possibly the simplest/safest??? way with the Asus would be to use your ISP's webmail and only download essential emails onto the Asus and continue to use your desktop computer to store all of your emails as you do at present. I had forgotten that there is a card slot on the Asus! Don't forget to use the "Safely Remove" feature to avoid destroying the card (been there, done that - 3 times!). I haven't looked at your Asus spec but mine came with Open Office installed but, having used MS Office 2000 (not Windows 2000) for so long, I much prefer it but I had to buy an external CD/DVD drive to install it. Colin