In news:ecqdnUuXKck2TibeRVn-gw@adelphia.com,
Don Cohen <doncohen@lens-cap.alltel.net> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Hi Guys,
>
>>> Thanks much for the reply and link. It'll probably be Wednesday
>>> before I'll have time to try this out, but I'm hopeful that this
>>> will do it. I actually gave some thought to creating a new User
>>> Profile, but didn't follow-up on it.
>>>
>>> I'll repost when I know if this fixes it or not.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>
>> Yes, please do. As Rock's mentioned it's possible that you're
>> infested with malware. Checking in safe mode with the latest
>> definitions and scanning with multiple vendor applications is one
>> way to ensure that you're 99% confident that you're clean. (There's
>> no such thing as 100% certainty, that's a myth, if the PC is
>> connected to the 'net at all AND if anyone other than yourself has
>> access and capability of knowing what's installed with each
>> application.) I'm rather curious as to the results of this and hope
>> that you're able to figure it out.
>
> Well, just completed the operation, and so far, so good. I created
> the 2 new User Accounts, both with Admin privileges. Logged once
> into what would be my daughter's New Logon, switched to the other,
> copied the appropriate files from the old to the new Logon, and
> everything seems stable. Quick Launch remains intact after reboot,
> all icons are shown correctly, and no Explorer or other OS crashes.
>
> I went ahead and installed TweakUI to automate Logon to her new
> account, as XP defaulted to loading the old one. I also went ahead
> and deleted the original problematic logon, and its files, to clean
> up.
> Thanks again for the help. Will repost if problems recur, but
> hopefully you were correct, that this was just a Profile corruption.
>
> One follow-up question: a few months ago I installed a Wireless Router
> (LinkSys WR54G), having previously used a hub/switch, and so now have
> a hardware firewall in place. I'm inclined to not reinstall
> ZoneAlarm Free, certainly not Ver.6.x which has quite a few problems
> according to multiple posts at ZoneLab's forums. Am I putting this
> system at risk without a software firewall? Or should I just enable
> Windows Firewall?

With a firewall - hardware - and Windows firewall you should be doing okay.
Windows XP SP2 yes? Make sure to have SP2 installed.

Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://kgiii.info/windows/XP/general/winxpsp2.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes