was hoping this would be a many thanks to those of you that sent me advise, and now things would be cured. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get ride of the <deleted> virus. If I had any hair left I'd be pulling it out. by downloading an update from McAfee I was able to delete 6 virus. Thank you Higher Power says I no no says my PC you have another 2. These won't go and katana was right its a cool search infection. I downloadedCW Shredder which then guided me on to microsoft downloads. I'm now in the process of downloading XP Ervice Pack1a. Which is supposed to solve the problem. The download is 93% done. The virus's have been continually interfering with the download so I've been on it for about 4 hours today and 3hours yesterday. I been thinking of chucking the PC out of the window and going to town to by a pair of knitting needles and some wool seems that might be a lot less problem.

I want to say many thanks to guys for taking the time to give me advice God bless your socks.

Regards Joe

Sounds like you were the sitting duck for virus. After you get that huge service pack installed go to tools/windows update and see if you need any "critical updates" (there may be a bunch) and start installing them or you will still be be a target for virus. After that I would install Zone Alarm (free version) firewall to help protect yourself. It runs pretty much by itself and is pretty easy to use. Be sure to keep your virus program updated and never click on any email attachment unless you are positive you requested it. Good luck. Hope you don't have to revert to the needles.

just reformat all and start again... a typical install will take about 3 hours (windows, office , someother progs) takes lot longer to download stuff.