Many thanks to you Mike - much appreciated! I had actually seen a
process called "mdm" running when I once did ctrl/alt/delete, but just
thought "oh it must be something to do with modems, that's come in
with Windows ME" - oops! I have now got rid of it - I actually deleted
it using a "Tweak All" program, because I've used that before and I
was a bit apprehensive about editing a config file! I trust that was
ok. Oh - and I've changed the Internet Explorer thing too. On the
subject of stopping tasks running, could you please advise me on
PCHEALTH ???!!! I'm sure you're going to say that it does more good
than harm, but it seems to create so many files..... do I really need
it?
Thanks
Adrian

Adrian,

It appears that you may have Microsoft's Machine Debug Manager (mdm.exe)
loading at startup. MDM is installed by default when you install MS
Office and perhaps also by VisualStudio. If you don't need MDM to debug
script problems then I would recommend a) killing mdm.exe in the Task
Manager, b) removing mdm.exe from Startup in MSConfig, c) in Internet
Explorer, go Tools | Internet Options | Advanced and make certain that
"Disable script debugging" is checked in the "Browsing" section, and d)
renaming mdm.exe to something like mdm.old. This can be a pretty
persistent little program and unless one renames the file you will find it
added to startup again behind your back - for example when adding a
service pack to O2K.

One you have killed mdm you can delete all the fff??????{?????}.tmp files
it will have created in your ..\windows folder.

See also MS KB 221438 - "OFF2000: Files Whose Name Begins with "fff"
Appear in Windows Folder" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=221438).
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP