It's no problem to shut programs down like Kutter mentioned, actually it's a good advice. It's one way of trying to isolate the problem which is a VERY important aspect of trying figure out where to look. I do agree that he has to be careful WHAT to shut down, but then again, one should always have some knowledge about computers if we try to solve difficult problems like this. Don't give JoeBlack the impression that his whole computer will be a mess if tries to shut down applications like a firewall, virus scanner,backup software, messengers, etc, because there is really no need for that.