Most Microsoft programs don't work very well, since they are released to
the public before they are completely cooked - they get away with these
half-baked products because they almost have a monopoly in certain
fields, so quality is not exactly "Priority #1"....  Anyway, polemical
rantings by a satisfied Mac user aside, Microsoft tries to clean up its
messes after the fact, by releasing "patches" for its programs and OSes
(Windows 95 holds the record in this category!), which sometimes chase
specific bugs away.  They are important to keep up with, since some of
the flaws that the patches are meant to fix can allow folks to create
viruses, worms and other nasties that can destroy information on your
hard drive, or even permit them to use your computer as if it were their
own.  One particularly clever recent worm peeps into your files and
finds all the references to credit card & banking info, plus passwords
you may have stored somewhere, etc.  Guess what a crook with an IQ of
say, 48.3 or greater can do with this sort of data??  That said, there
IS a "patch" for the latest OS which supposedly prevents this.

From the very early morning of Neu Schotland,
Ross M.

<Thanks for the virus information, Amy.  Could you explain what you mean
when you say "keep
<Microsoft products patched?"
<Thanks.  Joellen