my win2k is not clean now, so my virus problem should be gone for now. thansk for all concern and caring words. ;) in a nutshell, never use Outlook, as I seldom use it , but the day I had to use it to get another mail file, I got the week-long agony the following day I instlaled Outlook. Outlook Express makes Outrageous result I experienced. I now use Eudora as alternative mailer.