"madgardener" wrote in message
...

yep, but I WILL find the proper program and clean this machine.

Good idea. In terms of program which use the smallest amount of resources
all day long, your best bet is just a plain vanilla anti-virus product, not
one of the all-in-one security suites. I use Norton Anti-Virus because my
company wants me to. But, lots of people are happy with a free program
called AVG - search for it. Get it. Read the instructions for anything you
don't understand and make sure it's working.

For spyware, you should be using two programs which only run when you tell
them to: Spybot and Adaware. They're both free. Sometimes one catches a
nasty that the other one missed, hence the reason for both. After they do
their job, you shut them off like any other software.

Also, to for some fantastic help with cleaning up your current problems, go
to www.securitytango.com. Written by a couple of administrators from the
Univeristy of Rochester IT department, it's helped hundreds of people. It's
quite involved, but when you're done, you'll have a clean machine.

Finally, do the following with one of the setting in Outlook Express: Click
Tools, Options, Send. In the middle is the sentence "Automatically put
people I reply to in my address book". Turn that option OFF, and don't ever
turn it on. Leaving it turned on means that even when you reply to people
you might never correspond with again, they are added to your address book.
Then, when your computer gets infected with something that replicates itself
to everyone in your address book, it spreads to people who have no idea who
you are. If you want people in your address book, add them manually, with
intent, when you're sure they're people who really need to be there.