Sorry I don't have a response. I hope you can get it sorted. It just raises the point: it's a really good job you have access to another computer. For many people, they only have one computer and if that goes down, they don't have another one to use in the meantime.

Computers are so great when they ...

Is Comodo free? Apart from the Windows security are there any other good free virus scanners?

I'll add my name to that.

What was this thing I saw that runs your AV scanner off a USB stick - would this sort my sluggish windows woes?

It's most probably the Yoggie Gatekeeper Pico. I've thought ...

If I go to repair Windows XP using the CD that was included when I first bought the computer, will my files off the computer be lost, or will they remain on the computer?

I'm really not too sure about this. There is no way of backing up because the computer continually loops the start-up, asking ...