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I have removed word and installed the entire office suite 3003 with 25 MS updates. At this point all is running well. I scan my data to fresh formatted flash drives so they can't taint anything. I have a specific question; I now need an email client. The last time things went well i downloaded Windows Live Mail and the problem occurred, but, I can't be sure that was the culprit. IT is a descent program. I can use OE,(outdated), WLM , Thunderbird or I notice there is now a MS Office Outlook 2003. Would that serve as an email client? If it was not for the need for an email client I would be fine at this point but I do need one. What would you recommend?

I use MS Office 2003 Outlook on my main machine. Works great with XP. If you eventually upgrade to Vista or Win7 then Windows Mail is also fine.

Doug All is good now except that I am having trouble configuring Outlook for 2003. I have tried all the choices and when i press test, the email fails. I have a live Hotmail account and my isp is comcast.net. Do you have suggestions so the setup allows me to use it?

I'm not clear about whether or not Microsoft is still supporting connection to a Windows Live Hotmail account via Outlook.

There has been some discussion that Microsoft will only support the "paid" Windows Live Hotmail accounts via Outlook now.
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Back when they were supporting both free and paid live hotmail via Outlook, they provided a "Connector" protocol.
If it still works, consider yourself lucky and watch for any updates or changes that may be coming
Here's the Step-by-Step procedure:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-…A010221823.aspx

Doug I now have Word working again by uninstalling it then installing the entire Office Suite. For an email client I chose Thunderbird because the last time I used WLM , Word malfunctioned again. BUT, I gave Windows Live mail a try and everything seems to be working. I shall now make a backup image just in case. I did not get in involved with Outlook as it is above my level and I use my isp account or the Live Hotmail account for emailing. I needed something to reply those hyperlinks that surface when you are reading and want to send back i formation and especially when you want to "send to" a link or page to someone. It has been a long road and I thought for a while i would have to reformat and reinstall the o.s. as I have done before,from scratch. I was told reinstalling Word would not fix the problem but for those with similar issues it did it in this case. Thank you for all the communications as a lower level user feels a bit stranded when these unknown issues pop up.

OK then. Seems you've sorted this one out quite nicely. Good that you've taken an image backup! I hope more and more learn to do the same.

Doug
I now have Word working again by installing it then installing the entire Office Suite.
For an email client I chose Thunderbird because the last time I used WLM , Word malfunctioned again.
Thunderbird again did not install properly so I threw the dice and went with Windows Live Mail for xp.
BUT, I gave Windows Live Mail a try and everything seems to be working.
I shall now make a backup image just in case.
I did not get in involved with Outlook as it is above my level and I use my isp account or the Live Hotmail account for emailing.
I needed something to reply those hyperlinks that surface when you are reading and want to send back i formation and especially when you want to "send to" a link or page to someone.
It has been a long road and I thought for a while i would have to reformat and reinstall the o.s. as I have done before,from scratch.
I was told reinstalling Word would not fix the problem but for those with similar issues it did it in this case.
Thank you for all the communications as a lower level user feels a bit stranded when these unknown issues pop up.

>>If you reread my message you will see some errors I am correcting especially regarding Thunderbird which I did not use. I am doing this so someone else won't get the wrong idea.
Sorry aboutth errors in a 'quick email'.

Doug I had a follow up question for you. Under folders> view, if you check to show hidden file extensions then rename a file, a question comes up and says '"if you change this it will… I forgot the rest. Will this bring me right back to the macro issue again? I have left it so I cannot see the extensions so I hope the issue will not return. I ask this because I went to rename a file while the extensions were showing and when I clicked, this message came up. I said no and left it alone. This on my desktop, the one with out issues. I think i will leave all so the extensions are not visible but what do you think about my question?

For files "which you have created", you can change the filename part with no adverse effect.
For instance:
Scann0011.jpg
can be changed to:
Chris_Graduation 2006.jpg

You can "rename" the filename portion to better identify the content, without changing the file extension (.jpg)
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However, changing the file extension, even of files "which you have created", can cause problems

For instance:
If you change:
Chris_Graduation 2006.jpg
to
Chris_Graduation 2006.doc

The result will be a file that cannot be opened.
This is because .jpg files do not have the same structure and information in the file code, that is required to recognize and open a .doc type file.
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For files "which you have not created" such as windows system files and application files – You should not change either the filename or the file extension.
I think you already know that, but it is worth being sure.

I think keeping the extensions hidden is a good way to ensure that neither I nor another user changes a file extension that you so graphically portrayed. I wonder if I copy and paste from a web page or an article into a word document there will be any problems. I ask because I remember just before my problem, a person had sent me some information which I copy then pasted into a Word document. It was as though you copied this message into your pc's Word document which you created just for this article instead of typing it all out from memory -after all that is the purpose of copy/paste. I know so little about this that I am thinking if he had a certain extension that he used to copy and paste from, it could foul up the word file I create to paste it into. I think that is far fetched and I'd like to think copy and pasting obviously clear, simple, standard material is safe. I think it is ok to save a word documents as rtf ,for example, with no issues. Do you agree? After the scare I had I guess a bit of paranoia is setting in.