The ideal situation is to stop unwanted crap from getting onto your machine in the first place. FWIW, here are my suggestions: 1. Dump Outlook Express - many virii are written to exploit the OE address book. Use something like The Bat! (http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/) or Eudora; 2. Install some AV protection - AVG is good and free for home use (www.grisoft.com); 3. Clean the other garbage from your system - SpyBot (http://security.kolla.de) is good, as is AdAware (www.lavasoftusa.com); 4. Dump M$ Internet Explorer and get a more secure browser. Mozilla Firebird (excellent browser IMO - http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/), Opera (www.opera.com), K-Meleon (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/) are all preferable to IE. 5. Do not open anything without: (a) knowing who sent it and why; and (b) checking it with your AV package. It's a big rough internet out there, so take some precautions for your own safety .