I have Windows ME on my laptop, and I haven't had any problems with it. But I've never had to ask much of it, either.

Anyway, of Zenkitty's list:

Explorer, Ctfmon, Sk9910dm, Ccapp, Systray, Wuauclt, Winmgmt, Hidserv, and Mdm.

I only recognize Explorer and Systray. Can anyone identify the others?

When you run a Microsoft Office XP program, the file Ctfmon.exe (Ctfmon) runs in the background, even after you quit all Office programs.

Ctfmon.exe monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies.

Note: The ctfmon.exe file is located in the c:windowsSystem32 folder. In other cases, ctfmon.exe is a virus, spyware, trojan or worm!

eta:

SK9910DM.exe, Hot Key Keybd 9910 Daemon, 3, For programmable keys on a multi-function keyboard - such as provided by Gateway - for volume, one-button net ...

I only recognize Explorer and Systray. Can anyone identify the others?

A quick google of those show that they are all legitimate

sk9910dm - is a keyboard utility for gateway computers ccapp - is part of Norton Utilities wuauclt - is the automatic update client for Windows ME

The rest are legitimate Windows processes.

Note: The ctfmon.exe file is located in the c:windowsSystem32 folder. In other cases, ctfmon.exe is a virus, spyware, trojan or worm!

That's a little bit exaggerated:

[link]

So it sounds like what Zenkitty has running is okay.

Any ideas about her:

IE6.0 ... Convulsion-inducing flashes when downloading ads

...slow as heck even though I have 60 gigs of memory now, giving me "not enough memory" error messages, and crashing for no reason.

I think this is a problem of too little RAM, not hard drive space. When you are ready to do a re-boot and then get back online we can talk you through the steps to check system resources.

Can I go back to IE5.5?

I don't know how to do that.

Or should I just upgrade to Windows XP?

I can't help with that, haven't tried it myself. However, is trying an alternate browser (like Firefox) a possibility?

So it sounds like what Zenkitty has running is okay.

Perhaps. Unfortunately ME's "task manager" isn't particularly helpful - hence the suggestion for the startup control panel.

The "not enough memory" message strongly points to something else running which isn't showing up on the "task manager".

And no, I don't believe it's possible to roll back an IE upgrade - except by reformatting of course.

You guys are all so wonderful. You were so helpful to me, and just watching you jump in and work on Zenkitty's problem makes my heart go thumpity-thump. MUCH better than ISP's tech support, and nicer too!

Thanks again {{{Buffistas techies, and Zenkitty for good measure}}}

Gah! gnnnnak

Okay. Deep breath. Can't go back to IE5.5, so I'll dl the thing grommit suggested and see what's running that uses up so much memory. I'm not short on RAM, so I'm gonna be surprised, whatever it is.

Thanks, libkitty. :) Buffistas are great!

Oh for god's sake. I dl the thing, and now I can't unzip it. I had winzip, now apparently I don't. Pardon me while I bang my head repeatedly on the desk.

I'll get this fixed. Tomorrow.

this looks like the place to ask about this problem, bearing in mind that i will probably NOT use the correct terms for pieces/parts. *g*

here is the problem:

my operating system: i have *shudder* Windows ME. for some reason i have been unable to do a defrag of the harddrive. each time i try it, the whole thing starts over after a short time (like 5 - 10 secs). it gives me the message that it had to restart the defrag b/c the file/s had changed while the defrag was running.

yes, i have turned off all the other programs (the ones that are on the taskbar) before i start the defrag and have no frellin idea why i get that message. is there something that would be running in the background that i should close?

hope you all can suggest something. other than get rid of Windows ME. ;)