Windows XP

[shawnc]

I was having all kinds of problems converting mp3's to wma's to accomodate the smaller SD card I have after my 340MG microdrive died on me. Bottom line is based on some advice recieved in this forum I decided to install XP to make copying music from CD's to PPC much easier. IT WORKED PERFECTLY! It is SO much easier not having to use a 3rd party app to make mps'3/wma's.

But (you knew there was a but). There are two problems that I have that did not exist with W/Me. (1) I have to physically turn my computer off now whereas before W/Me would perform this for me. Is there any way to set this in XP? (2) I get all of these funky pop-up messages telling me that someone has found a hole in my security and could take over my PC. Of course, they refer me to their website to purchase their software to patch this hole. Is XP actually LESS secure that W/Me and do I really need to purchase 3rd party app's to secure my PC?

I realize that this is not related to PPC which is why I am posting in Off-topic. My apologies in advance to Jason, Ed, Janeh, et. al if you think this is an inappropriate use of this site. If you decide to remove the question, I understand. To the very small minority of readers who are NOT site administrators who will have a problem with this question, simply DON'T RESPOND! No lectures please.

To the rest of you, as always, any help you can provide is appreciated.

[Steven Cedrone]

I realize that this is not related to PPC which is why I am posting in Off-topic. My apologies in advance to Jason, Ed, Janeh, et. al if you think this is an inappropriate use of this site. If you decide to remove the question, I understand. To the very small minority of readers who are NOT site administrators who will have a problem with this question, simply DON'T RESPOND! No lectures please.

These types of posts are exactly what the "Off-topic" forum is for...

Ask Away... :wink:

Steven Cedrone
Community Moderator

[Steven Cedrone]

I get all of these funky pop-up messages telling me that someone has found a hole in my security and could take over my PC. Of course, they refer me to their website to purchase their software to patch this hole. Is XP actually LESS secure that W/Me and do I really need to purchase 3rd party app's to secure my PC?

Have you gone and applied all of the XP patches? Go to Windows Update and see how many you have to apply. (Do you have a broadband connection?)...

If you really need to, you can get security software for free. Ignore the pop-ups...

Steve

[shawnc]

I get all of these funky pop-up messages telling me that someone has found a hole in my security and could take over my PC. Of course, they refer me to their website to purchase their software to patch this hole. Is XP actually LESS secure that W/Me and do I really need to purchase 3rd party app's to secure my PC?

Have you gone and applied all of the XP patches? Go to Windows Update and see how many you have to apply. (Do you have a broadband connection?)...

If you really need to, you can get security software for free. Ignore the pop-ups...

Steve

Steve,

Thanx for the clarification of "Off-topic". Yes, I have installed all the XP patches. I new this might be an issue since I have one of the 1st batch of XP CD's. Fortunately, XP automatically checks for this and it took almost as long to install the various patches as it did to install the OS. As of now, I think myPC is current with the latest patches/updates. Also, I do have a cable/modem connection.

I don't think my PC is that vulnerable but the pop-ups are very irritating and I would like to stop them since I never received them with W/Me. You mentioned free security software? Could you provide a link.

Thanx again.

[Steven Cedrone]

Zone Labs has a free download for Zone Alarm (firewall):
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

You can get various third party pop up stoppers and plug-ins for IE (Assuming you are using IE). Just do a google search...Just remember: sometimes when you try to open another instance of IE, these apps might block it thinking it's a pop-up...

Steve

Oh, and the pop-ups you are seeing - Just remember this: pop-ups pay the bills for alot of web sites (read: necessary evil).... :wink:

[Kati Compton]

My guess is the shut down thing is because the BIOS was intended for Me, not XP? May want to see if there's a BIOS upgrade for your computer, but if that scares you and it's not a big deal for you to turn off the machine manually, I wouldn't bother.

Also do this (http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/docs/messagepopup/).
I don't know of anything it breaks, but it makes your computer more secure. I didn't have this disabled at first at school, and I can't tell you how many non-IE popups I was getting about "UNIVERSITY DEGREES". You know, if I decided that the school I'm at was too difficult. ;)

The other thing you may want to consider is switching to a browser like Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org/), where pop-up blocking is just a setting to enable. I switched recently and I like it a lot. Still need IE very occasionally to access sites that are not-quite-to-spec in the way they're coded, and if I want to do anything with "Mobile Favorites" to transfer to my Axim, but that's not all that often for me. Either that, or there have been a couple threads here about IE add-ons to make IE a more pleasant experience overall. Those might also have pop-up blocking included.

[Kati Compton]

Oh, and the pop-ups you are seeing - Just remember this: pop-ups pay the bills for alot of web sites (read: necessary evil).... :wink:

I don't block banners, and I do notice them. But I do block pop-ups. There's a limit of what I'm willing to endure. I don't mind TV commercials or product placement so much (usually), but if a window came up periodically in front of the TV to tell me about another movie, spy cameras, weight-loss, etc, I would be extremely annoyed. I also hate the flash anims that cover the text of what I'm trying to read...

Some pop-ups (pop-unders) are more evil than others...

I have also encountered sites that give you a new pop-up after every click on any link. Yeeesh.

[Steven Cedrone]

Oh, and the pop-ups you are seeing - Just remember this: pop-ups pay the bills for alot of web sites (read: necessary evil).... :wink:

I don't block banners, and I do notice them. But I do block pop-ups. There's a limit of what I'm willing to endure. I don't mind TV commercials or product placement so much (usually), but if a window came up periodically in front of the TV to tell me about another movie, spy cameras, weight-loss, etc, I would be extremely annoyed. I also hate the flash anims that cover the text of what I'm trying to read...

Some pop-ups (pop-unders) are more evil than others...

I have also encountered sites that give you a new pop-up after every click on any link. Yeeesh.

I don't disagree. I block pop-ups/unders as well. I'm merely pointing out that some web sites need these to survive...

Steve

[Kati Compton]

I don't disagree. I block pop-ups/unders as well. I'm merely pointing out that some web sites need these to survive...


Do you know if pop-ups really provide that much revenue beyond banner ads? Or is it just the way to get more ads once you've already filled your site with banners and there's no more room?

[Steven Cedrone]

Do you know if pop-ups really provide that much revenue beyond banner ads? Or is it just the way to get more ads once you've already filled your site with banners and there's no more room?

Hmmm...As far as revenue is concerned, that I couldn't tell you. I would assume (I know, never assume) its a way to get more adds once you've filled your site with banners...

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

My guess is the shut down thing is because the BIOS was intended for Me, not XP? May want to see if there's a BIOS upgrade for your computer, but if that scares you and it's not a big deal for you to turn off the machine manually, I wouldn't bother.
You've hit the nail on the head. Unlike 98/Me, which primarily use APM facilities for power management, XP uses (almost exclusively) ACPI, which is a much more complex standard. Older computers' BIOS won't be able to completely handle ACPI, and as a result you don't get all of the power management features you should.

Unfortunately, flashing the BIOS is only one step; the other one is telling XP to use the ACPI features. From what I've heard, it's not so easy to do once the OS is installed. :(

shawnc, I'd try a few Google searches on XP shutdown and see what turns up.

--janak

re: the popup/under discussion - I follow the same procedure - leave banners alone but block popups. Fortunately, the hobbyist sites I visit don't rely on popups as a source of income. Yahoo does use it, but ironically, they really shouldn't need to - they are turning profits nowadays.

[Sheynk]

by the way..................in XP you dont need to go to shut down.....u just hit the power button to turn it off

[Janak Parekh]

by the way..................in XP you dont need to go to shut down.....u just hit the power button to turn it off
That trick also works in Windows 2000 -- it's saved me from a couple of scrapes where the keyboard stopped responding. Again, though, I'm not sure it'll produce the desired result with his old BIOS.

--janak

[shawnc]

Again,

This site is THE BEST! People helping people they don't even know. Thanx to all for pitching in. Kati, your link seemed to do the trick for the pop-ups.

I may have to live with turning the computer off manually (it's amazing how spoiled I've become with technology). In the grand scheme of things, that really is not to much of an inconvenience.

Steve, thanx for your input. You really got the ball rolling on the discussion.



Oh, and the pop-ups you are seeing - Just remember this: pop-ups pay the bills for alot of web sites (read: necessary evil).... :wink:

I don't mind the banner ads as much, but most of the pop-ups I have gotten seem to lack credibility. They used scare-tactics to sell me something I really didn't need. They reminded me of low-budget spam and I would not feel the least bit guitly of denying them access to me.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I certainly hope these pop-ups aren't generating enough revenue to justify the trouble... I know that I'm 10x more likely to pay attention to a traditional ad banner as opposed to a pop-up. That's one reason I loved Opera, it would load up the pop-ups in the background (or block them altogether) as opposed to popping it in your face.

[Mike Temporale]

I think your Pop-up problem is not what everyone (and you) thinks it is. Since XP is based on 2000, and Me is based on 95, there are some major differences under the hood. I think the pop-ups you speek about are actually the messenger service that runs on Microsofts NT based OS's. Go to your services and Stop/Disable the Messenger service. Don't worry this is NOT related to your MSN Messenger client.

Since ME doesn't have this service, you never got these messeges before. The service is meant for network admins to broadcast shutdown notices to users. However, people are now using it to broadcast these so-called security warnings.

Trust me. They are harmless, and will stop when you shut off this service.

[Kati Compton]

I think the pop-ups you speek about are actually the messenger service that runs on Microsofts NT based OS's. Go to your services and Stop/Disable the Messenger service. Don't worry this is NOT related to your MSN Messenger client.


Yes - the link I provided gives detailed instructions on how to do this. But just in case, I answered for both types.

[Mike Temporale]

I think the pop-ups you speek about are actually the messenger service that runs on Microsofts NT based OS's. Go to your services and Stop/Disable the Messenger service. Don't worry this is NOT related to your MSN Messenger client.


Yes - the link I provided gives detailed instructions on how to do this. But just in case, I answered for both types.

Opps. :oops: Sorry Kati, I must have missed reading your reply to that. Me bad.

[Kati Compton]

Opps. :oops: Sorry Kati, I must have missed reading your reply to that. Me bad.

That wasn't intended to be a reprimand. :) It's always better to duplicate information than to not provide it at all.

[shawnc]

Rather than start a new thread, I'll piggy-back off of this one since it is related. I have two minor annoyances that I would like to fix if anyone can help.

First, whenever I power-on, my PC automatically opens the "My Documents" folder. Not a big deal but I would rather it did not do this.

Second, I get a HotSync Manager dialogue box that I have to manually close out. The error message reads "The selected port, COM1, is not available at this time. HotSync Manager will open the port when it becomes available". I did get a couple of error messages when logging into W/Me (prior to installing XP), but I don't think this was one of them.

Again, neither of these are a big deal, but it would be nice to actually have my PC working smoothly and glitch-free. As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

PS-as you can probably tell from the question, I am not very technical. The more detailed the help instructions, the better.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Second, I get a HotSync Manager dialogue box that I have to manually close out. The error message reads "The selected port, COM1, is not available at this time. HotSync Manager will open the port when it becomes available".
HotSync or ActiveSync? If it's HotSync (Palm) and you're no longer using your Palm, just remove the HotSync program. HotSync is basically in your startup routine and configured to communicate over COM1 (likely your serial port). When it can't find your COM1, it communicates the error message.

I haven't seen this error with ActiveSync...

[Steven Cedrone]

I get a HotSync Manager dialogue box that I have to manually close out. The error message reads "The selected port, COM1, is not available at this time. HotSync Manager will open the port when it becomes available". I did get a couple of error messages when logging into W/Me (prior to installing XP), but I don't think this was one of them.


Were you using a Palm? Or did you mean ActiveSync?

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Were you using a Palm? Or did you mean ActiveSync?

Steve
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that it is HotSync. When ActiveSync detects a com port that's not open, it kicks into detection mode where it searches for your device. Back in my Palm days, I remember HotSync giving me the same message he's describing when it couldn't locate the com port configured.

[Steven Cedrone]

HotSync or ActiveSync? If it's HotSync (Palm) and you're no longer using your Palm, just remove the HotSync program. HotSync is basically in your startup routine and configured to communicate over COM1 (likely your serial port). When it can't find your COM1, it communicates the error message.

That's what I was going to say... :wink: I guess we posted at about the same time...

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

That's what I was going to say... :wink: I guess we posted at about the same time...

Steve
JINX!!

[Steven Cedrone]

JINX!!

I guess I owe you a http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cedrones/anican3.gif

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Oh no, what have I done!!! You're now jinxing each other too! :o

Anyway, shawnc: as for your first question, I assume you already checked Startup for weird entries. If so, this is almost always caused by a registry entry in startup that is set to an empty string, e.g., "". If you're comfortable editing the registry, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (as well as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) and see if there is such a weird key. It could also be pointing to "Explorer.exe", although this is much rarer.

--janak

[Kati Compton]

Open up My Documents (or really any other folder...)

Go to Tools -> Folder options

Under the View tab, the Advanced settings pane, scroll down to the bottom.

A few lines up there should be a box "Restore previous folder windows at login" - make sure that isn't checked.

Click OK.

I'll be honest - I'm not sure that's the fix, but it sounds like it might be, and I'm too lazy tonight to check for sure.

[Janak Parekh]

I'll be honest - I'm not sure that's the fix, but it sounds like it might be, and I'm too lazy tonight to check for sure.
I believe this option, if checked, just restores the previous state just prior to shutdown. If he's getting just "My Documents" every time, it's probably something else, but it's certainly worth checking.

--janak

[shawnc]

I LOVE THIS SITE! Thanx to all for the help. It IS HotSync and since I was syncing my Treo 300 (Palm). it sounds like that is what is causing it. Since I haven't really synced my Treo lately, I'm going to uninstall and see if that works.

I will also try Janak and Kati's suggestion for solving the My Documents problem on start-up. I'll post back this evening just to let eveyone know how it turned out.

Thanx again :D .

BTW-What is JINX?

[DrtyBlvd]

Re the auto power-off - Is it crucial? I can't recall the last time I turned my PC off - it's been running for months! I just walk away and let the 'suspend' function kick in :lol:

I do restart it occasionally, software installs and things, but I lost the habit of turning it off a few years back....

[Steven Cedrone]

BTW-What is JINX?

Shawn, the whole "Jinx" discussion started here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7499&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)...

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

BTW-What is JINX?
Shawn, the whole "Jinx" discussion started here (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7499&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)...
Yeah, look at the bottom of that page and you'll see that our very own BigDaddyJ (that would be Janak) introduced it into the board. You'll see I had no clue what "jinx" was either. Now I can't get it out of my system!!

[shawnc]

You'll see I had no clue what "jinx" was either. Now I can't get it out of my system!!

Whoever said you computer guys don't know how to have fun......well, they better ask somebody :wink: ! LOL, thanx for the link.

Back to my original issue. The suggestions on Hotsync were right on the mark. I uninstalled and the error message has gone away.

I tried Kati's suggestion to have Windows stop opening "My Documents" when I turn my PC on, but that didn't work. If anyone has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.

Thanx,

[Steven Cedrone]

I tried Kati's suggestion to have Windows stop opening "My Documents" when I turn my PC on, but that didn't work. If anyone has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.


Try this (But make sure you backup your registry first):

Using Regedit, change the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CURRENT VERSION\WINLOGON Change USERINIT from C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe to C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I tried Kati's suggestion to have Windows stop opening "My Documents" when I turn my PC on, but that didn't work. If anyone has any other suggestions I would appreciate it.
Sorry. I'm going back to Janak's earlier point about your StartUp folder. By chance, you wouldn't happen to have a shortcut to "My Documents" sitting in your startup folder, would you?

If you haven't already, check your startup folder... (Not sure for XP, but I think you should find it in Start Menu->Programs->StartUp), do you see any references there to "My Documents"? If you do, right-click on it and delete it...

[shawnc]

Sorry. I'm going back to Janak's earlier point about your StartUp folder. By chance, you wouldn't happen to have a shortcut to "My Documents" sitting in your startup folder, would you?

If you haven't already, check your startup folder... (Not sure for XP, but I think you should find it in Start Menu->Programs->StartUp), do you see any references there to "My Documents"? If you do, right-click on it and delete it...

ekkie,

No need to apologize. Hey, I appreciate you taking the time to help. I THINK I tried Janak's earlier suggestion that you refer to, but I'll check again later when I get home from work.

Steve,

Thanx for the suggestion but the idea of changing my registry absolutely PETRIFIES me :D . Heck, I can't even figure out a way to quote two different responses in one post :oops: .

[Steven Cedrone]

Thanx for the suggestion but the idea of changing my registry absolutely PETRIFIES me :D . Heck, I can't even figure out a way to quote to different responses in one post :oops: .

Shawn,

It's not that bad, trust me :wink:

Just manually create a recovery point (so you can get back to where you are now - start, all programs, accessories, system tools, system restore, create a restore point)...

Use regedit (C:\windows\regedit.exe)...
Move to the key above...
The key will have two copies of the userinit command, just backspace out one copy...
Exit...

Remember, if you don't change anything (stay on the navigation side of the display), nothing bad will happen. Just go in and see if the key is duplicated (I bet it is!)...

If you do decide to take the plunge, make sure you leave the comma on the end...

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Using Regedit, change the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CURRENT VERSION\WINLOGON Change USERINIT from C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe to C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,
Hmm. This is a new one for me. I noticed my key is set to the latter setting. Steve, do you know what triggered this change on your computer?

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

Using Regedit, change the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS NT\CURRENT VERSION\WINLOGON Change USERINIT from C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe to C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe,
Hmm. This is a new one for me. I noticed my key is set to the latter setting. Steve, do you know what triggered this change on your computer?

--janak

I don't quite remember: it was during a period of "self-induced instability" with XP. :wink:

I don't even remember where I found the fix, but I kept it on file JIC...

Steve

[shawnc]

It's not that bad, trust me :wink:

Steve

Famous last words :D. I'm feeling a bit adventerous (who know's, maybe a little TGIF), so I think I'll take the plunge. I'll post back and let you know how it turns out.

Again, thanx to all for the help!

[shawnc]

Thanx for the suggestion but the idea of changing my registry absolutely PETRIFIES me :D . Heck, I can't even figure out a way to quote to different responses in one post :oops: .

Shawn,

It's not that bad, trust me :wink:

Just manually create a recovery point (so you can get back to where you are now - start, all programs, accessories, system tools, system restore, create a restore point)...

Use regedit (C:\windows\regedit.exe)...
Move to the key above...
The key will have two copies of the userinit command, just backspace out one copy...
Exit...

Remember, if you don't change anything (stay on the navigation side of the display), nothing bad will happen. Just go in and see if the key is duplicated (I bet it is!)...

If you do decide to take the plunge, make sure you leave the comma on the end...

Steve

Steve,

I tried this, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done on a computer. You should have seen how gingerly I was clicking my way through the path of folders (as if somehow clicking softly would be less destructive). Anyway, no luck. When I got to the point where I was to make the change, it already read the way you suggested (i.e. C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe, was only in the path once).

I'll keep playing around with this, as I've gotten a taste. If anyone wants to post additional suggestions, I appreciate it.

Thanx again to everyone for the help.



ekkie,

I tried your/Kati's suggestion in the Start menu to no avail.

[Janak Parekh]

I tried this, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done on a computer.
There's always a first time. :)

BTW, if you want to edit the startup stuff without having to trek through the registry, go to Start / Run / MSCONFIG [Enter] / Startup tab. See if there are any "empty" startup entries via that mechanism (should you prefer). I define empty as those that may or may not have a name, but definitely do not have a command associated with it.

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

I tried this, it was one of the scariest things I have ever done on a computer. You should have seen how gingerly I was clicking my way through the path of folders (as if somehow clicking softly would be less destructive). Anyway, no luck. When I got to the point where I was to make the change, it already read the way you suggested (i.e. C:\windows\system32\userinit.exe, was only in the path once).


Shawn,

I would have bet the farm that my fix would have worked for you...
Sorry to say, I can't think of anything else for you to try...

Good luck,

Steve

[Kati Compton]

Well, you could try creating a new user profile, and see if it still happens. If not, and you don't have a ton of personalized settings, you could use the new profile and delete the old one.

I know it's a lame sounding solution, but this seems to be a last resort type of thing. I know of other problems that people have had that were inexplicable, and this was the only way to fix it.

But don't delete your old profile until you're really sure the new one doesn't have the same problem, and until you're very sure you've set up the new one the way you want.

One thing I found:

Norton Internet Security (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nip.nsf/0c9d6ca9685531b8852569370052e93c/6d8ffbec62e238e2882569f9007fb24e?OpenDocument)

[Roosterman]

Have you tried going into setup when the computer boots? Depending on your system, you will probably hit Del or F2 to get into setup. Go to power management. One of the first option to select is whether you have, I am forgetting the exact words, an OS that supports advanced power management, the answer is yes. Then there is another selection to enable it. Choose enable. XP loads APM automatically for sytems that support it. You may just need to turn it on. I just upgraded my wife's system to XP, the mainboard probably predates your's, and I was able to enable the APM to auto shutdown. Good luck

[shawnc]

Hey Roosterman,

Thanx for the tip. This sounds a bit adventerous for my taste, but I may take the plunge.

[shawnc]

Not to beat a dead horse, but I'm going to give this one more try. To recap, my system automatically opens "My Documents" upon start-up. I would rather this didn't happen.

I think this is a specific "feature" of W/XP. I noticed that the folder being opened is not the "My Documents" folder that I am accustomed to. Instead, it has the following path:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My Documents\

If memory serves, W/XP required that I set up different "Users" when I installed the OS. I don't know if any of this means anything to anyone. But if anyone has had this happen when installing W/XP, please let me know if/how you were able to stop this from occurring. I have tried everything that I can think of to stop this, to no avail. Any help is appreciated.

Thanx

[Janak Parekh]

shawnc, the new location of My Documents is by design, and I can tell you for a fact that's not what's causing your automatic startup.

Did you look through the startup items in msconfig as I may have mentioned earlier in this thread?

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

Shawnc,

Check this KB article out: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q228502 (I know it says Win98, but it's worth a look!)

Steve

[Steven Cedrone]

Oh, and did you try Kati's suggestion? If you create a new user and log on with that account, does explorer open up???

Steve

[shawnc]

Thanx again to everyone for their help and suggestions. I think I finally got it :onfire: .

The problem was in the start-up menu (as kati42 correctly diagnosed from the beginning :wink: ). For what seems like the 100th time, I checked Start/All Programs/Startup. I didn't see anything that looked to be the problem, so I just started clicking things. Well everytime I clicked something called "TD Launcher", the "My Documents" folder in question would appear.

I was leery about deleting something that I was unfamiliar with, but I figured I could always restore it from the Recycle Bin. To make a long story less long, I deleted it, rebooted, and WALA, no My Documents (on start-up). Don't know what TD Launcher is, or why it caused my system to open My Documents, but at this point it doesn't seem that important.

Whew, that was tough! Determination and subborness CAN be a good thing occassionally.

Thanx again to EVERYONE for taking the time.

[Janak Parekh]

Shawn -

Could have been a deleted program. When Windows encounters a "dead-end" shortcut, it searches for the nearest-matching filename. You get the strangest results sometimes.

Good to hear that you're fixed up, though. :)

--janak

[Kati Compton]

Anytime - glad it's fixed.