Carole C

If you don't reset the "Startup Type," net messaging will re-enable on boot. I don't know whether using the "disable" setting rather than the "manual" would help.

If that's not your case, then it is possible that they've snuck something on to reset it for you. A couple of well known virus types stick a .dll into startup to reinstall themselves (or attempt to) if you delete them (sp.dll, as I recall, was a classic of the type).

If they have slipped something in, it would almost certainly leave tracks in Start and/or Startup folders (or maybe even in the DOS startup files, config and autoexec if you still have them) but those are pretty difficult to "analyse by remote control."

John