>So, Ron, is that a 286 or a 386 that they'll have to pry your cold, dead >fingers off of. Whatever it is, it hasn't stuck you in the category of >"can't make a filter or a mailbox". No, I'm running a 700mhz box with Win 2000, professional edition (whatever exactly that's supposed to mean), and software that's not that far out of date, even though it's true you can't still smell the shrink wrap. It just seems that every other week, I'm allowed the necessity of software upgrades because last year's no longer works with the file formats and conventions of this year's, or the timed self destruct date has passed. For the last few weeks now, Mcaffe has been popping up a "reminder" every time I boot up, telling me I have to go to their web site and buy an upgrade. This must be manually cancelled each time for the boot to proceed. No, it's not a matter of updating the DAT file, it's an insistence that I buy an upgrade. Since this "reminder" has started appearing, I'm no longer "allowed" to view or edit my firewall access list either. This sort of crap is becoming the norm rather than the exception, and I for one resent it. It offends me. I don't treat my customers this way, and I think I should get the same consideration when I'm the customer. If that makes me a technological troglodyte, hanging on to the past in hysterical horror, then that is what I will apparently be forevermore. No, maybe that isn't the same category as "can't make a filter or mailbox", but I can't call it progress either. When I finally give up and bite the bullet of starting all over again from scratch yet another time, I'll see what's available in good antivirus and firewall and write Mcaffe off for this lifetime. Maybe Zone alarm will work with my present system, it wouldn't with my previous one. That is, if Mcaffe will graciously allow me to uninstall it without trashing something else. Then I'll waste whatever time it takes to get it "working" as I'd like - assuming that's possible. I realize I could save time, money, and trouble by just closing my eyes and forking over the paltry ransom for the "upgrade", but this marketing method thoroughly offends me. Sure, maybe I could thrash around in the registry and find and exorcise the outward indications and "reminders", but I have no idea what creatively conceived secondary affects that might induce, and I'm not that enthusiastic about reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything from scratch again. Besides, I'm not interested in becoming an operating system expert. I don't think tools should argue with me. I just want the bloody thing to shut up, stay out of my way, and let me get on with what I'm trying to do without arbitrarily biting me in the butt. When I have to buy software to protect me from the Internet, why can't I buy software to protect me from the software I've already bought? I'd buy that. Ron N
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