Yes they do Midchuck and I for one have its "start center" thingy running in the system tray without having any ill effects. I guess it is back to the drawing board but the error message you are getting means (or should mean) that Hearme can not open the wav output device because another application is using it. Something as simple as a Windows system sound can cause that message if that sound is still playing and someone starts singing on Hearme but it usually clears itself quickly and I have not encountered a freeze up because of it.

Jon