[tst]

i hear what you're saying and i agree with you most whole-heartedly! but unfortunately, i am an idiot!! well not really...i'm just constrained to work with what i have or rather what i don't have. i don't have the install disks for XP...and i'm not, if i can help if, going back to win98se...talk about problems sheesh! i don't have a cd burner...i don't have tape backup...i don't have a second hard drive...etc..etc...etc... i should know better but i'm working with a laptop and i haven't been able to find a decent price on an external usb burner...which i find ridiculously priced at around $100 while internal ones i can find as low as $19.99. i have a 100mb zip drive but that's a whole nother can of worms. it's got the 'click of death' syndrome & it just gives me fits whenever i try to use it. i, also like you, have my system loaded with goodies like cool edit pro (space hog!) works, encarta, adaware, spybot s&d..& the like. as i said...you're not giving a girl much hope...but you have definately given me a shot in the behind. i think i'm just gonna have to bite the bullet & get something to put my drive onto. but then i'm still without the xp disks. oh i so dread dealing with 98 again! now back on the win.com file again. you say you have it but it's date has not been changed from the install date...so it's never been modified? is that correct. if that's the case, & mine has been... it still may be part of my problem. what about the activation file wpl.dbl (? i think that's right?) ?? does that file have differing create/modify dates? you know though, again we sound alike in that i'm the computer goto man for all of my friends. i don't work with them for a living like you...but i might as well with all that i do for all of my peeps. thxs for the good info/input. i really do appreciate your time & effort. keep the flow, tst