Helen -

I can sympathize, but from the info available if you had been able to reinstall your Norton after SP1 was in place, you probably wouldn't have had a problem. Of course if you installed from a download, and didn't save an "original and installer" there probably was no good way to get the fix accomplished.

That's one of those kinds of situations that make me stick to my insistence that I have a disk for anything critical that I put on my machines, but of course sometimes that complicates my life too. Sometimes you can download and save the installation file(s) and then execute the installation from your own "original" but I don't know if Norton lets you save an original.

If you still don't have SP1, I would recommend you check to see if you can still get the free CD. They may have one by now that has both SP1 and SP2. Installation from the CD is a lot cleaner than from a download, and once you get at least SP1 in place and working, I believe you can sign up for the autoupdates, and they'll dribble the later ones to you. Of course, it's your machinery, and your choice, but I would recommend that you get the SPs in place. The security improvements are significant.

The latest round of malware may make us all "buy up" to new versions fairly soon. Some AV makers have begun adding "root kits" to their latest versions to detect and block malware root kits, but the "wise ones" in the business haven't yet agreed that this is a good thing. Some are suggesting that the AV rootkits may be more of a hazard to your OS than the malware ones, but I'm not convinced the arguments on either side are "persuasive" yet.

If you get the SPs up to date, and sign up for automatic updates, Microsoft will do an automatic "Malware Remover" run every time it updates (there may be a separate signup for this, and you may need to get their AntiSpyware (Beta) - all free). It's been getting fairly good reviews for effectiveness on a lot of stuff that "isn't viral" and gets missed even by the really good AV and by the "pretty good" AntiSpyware programs.

John