...calculator, winamp, Firefox (verified that I had a working internet connection), Macro Freehand MX, Limewire, StyleXP, all without problem other than the minimizing issues which remain the same.

Then I tried windows media player and I got the following message "cannot perform operation, low memory". Important to mention, I had closed all the other programs already that had been opened succesfully. So now I have a handful of programs working just fine, but now one program isn't - windows media player. So I continue with my hunt and start to find other problems. I opened up her documents and tried opening up some of her saved pictures of random formats, jpeg, bitmap, gif, etc. All would view in filmstrip mode, but if I double-click to open them fully, nothing would happen. I right-clicked each kind of picture and went to properties, and made sure that the "opens with" program was defaulted to "windows picture and fax viewer" which I always had used before. Still no luck in opening the pictures, UNLESS, I right-click and select "open with..." Then if I select windows picture and fax viewer, it opens up right away the way it should. (??)

So now I am thinking all sorts of things including virus, so I decide to run System Mechanic and see what it finds. But now I can't. Now it is one of the programs that can't open no matter what, but with this one it pops up the typical xp dialog "system mecahic encountered a problem and needs to close" followed by the option to close or report the problem. Now I am getting pissed! Then I realize that a system restore should help me get back to where I need to be. So I click start, go to all programs, accessories, and then find and try to start system restore. But when I click on it, instead of opening it it says this: "System Restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer and then run system restore again." What the heck? So I did that. I restarted, again and again and again, all with the same sets of problems - everything I have already described including the system restore part. Also between the restarts, I accessed the hardware device manager, but eventhough it populated all the installed hardware, I could not open the properties for anything listed. That is pretty much wher I gave up except for one other thing I noticed when I later went to my computer at another spot in the house. I decided to try to access our shared network that I had created which had always worked. Her computer, when I tried to access its shared folders, said that it was not accessible due to either lost connection, permission restrictions, etc. However if I then go back to the problem computer and try to access my computers shared folders and shared printer, I can just fine.