Hi again folks
Well I had to take my puter to my computer guy and he formatted and reinstalled XP home for me.
There's only 1 thing different. He put IE 8 on it and I had IE7. It looks a bit weird but I'll get use to it. The first thing I did was download an antivirus program and then did all the critical updates with Windows Update. I think I have a long night ahead of me installing all my stuff again. Thank you all very much for all of your kind advice and help.

Cathy

I have to say I think that was the best solution here. Don't turn off your automatic updates this time!!

What antivirus did you decide on? Did you download SP 3 yet?

Hi Drac
I'm sticking with AVG and yes the first thing I did was update to service pack 3 with all the critical updates. I won't be turning off automatic updates anymore.
Thanks for asking how everything is going. I need to find somewhere to find out about IE8. I got some tweaking to do.

Cathy

I think you'll like IE8. I don't use it very often, but when I do, I like it very much. I especially liked the videos on all the features on this Microsoft page...
Making IE 8 Work For You

Sounds like you are good to go for at least 4 years if your computer holds up. Have fun!

Hi Drac
I just downloaded Microsoft Security Essentials.
It sounds better than AVG. Thanks for the link.
Cathy

Hope it works for you as well as it's been working for me.

So far so good. It seems to be a lot faster than AVG and takes up less room.