Thanks, John and everyone. I realized that this file transfer "utility" (large quotation marks on that one) decides for itself what files it wants to transfer, and that included all of the countless megabytes worth of proprietary compacted Compaq system files that I would have absolutely no use for. So I just decided to transfer the "settings" using a ZIP disk, hoping at least that all my tweaks in Word 2000 would be set up. No such luck--Word is still plain vanilla, so I have to tweak all over again. Fortunately, most of the macros I had set up were for typing my chart notes in the office. Now that I no longer have a private practice and dictate my notes on the hospital system, I don't need them. It's just a matter of rearranging the toolbar.

I'm not sure what exactly happened when I transferred my settings...doesn't seem like much of anything. Well, at least I didn't go out and buy a bunch of hardware I'd never use again.

That explanation for why Windows didn't recognize my CD burner with a blank CD-RW in place makes sense. (It's nice to have SOMETHING make sense, at least!)

One more question, as long as I'm up...(actually it's only 6:30 PM here) You talked about saving emails to a CD. I use Netscape Communicator for my email program. I remember having a hell of a time transferring emails the last time I switched computers, and finally gave up. I'd like to transfer my inbox to the new machine. I have it set to compact the inbox automatically whenever it gets to 200 kb or something like that. What do I have to do, exactly, to transfer those messages? Can I just put the inbox file on a ZIP and stick it in the Netscape folder, or is there some ritual I have to do first to make sure the new computer will be able to integrate it? I use Netscape 4.79 on my old machine and 7.1 on the new one (I liked 4.7x!--very unhappy at how many sites left it in the lurch.)

Aloha,
Mark