I am running Windows Me, ver 4.90.3000, and Word 2000SR-1 on a Dell computer. When I click on Word to load it, the computer freezes up. If I hit contrl-alt-del I get a message that the system is low on resources. I have to turn off the computer and re-boot. All other applications load and run normally. I have un-installed and re-installed Word twice, with no change. Any suggestions ?

Yes, Alan resources are always a problem on Win 9x/ME based computers, hence the reason why 2000/NT/XP were created. In a nutshell, resources refer to a certain part of memory that Windows 9x/ME uses for its own internal workings. Specifically these are called GDI and USER resources. When an application (like Word) opens, it reserves an amount of these resources to launch. Unfortunately when the application closes, it doesn't necessarily give back all that it had reserved. Consequently, the resources diminish over time and you eventually have to reboot to reclaim this memory. Multiply this by the dozens of applications you likely have running you can run out of resources very quickly, particularly if you don't have much memory or rampant spyware is running on your machine (more about this later). Since not even 3rd-pary memory managers are able to get these resources back for you (i.e. only WinME can adjust this), there are really only a few things you can do: 1) turn off and/or get rid of things that are starting up in your System tray. Things like AOL, RealPlayer, TweakUI, etc. or anything loading up that you don't understand or really doesn't need to be there. With the exception of firewall and anti-virus s/w, chances are you don't need most of the things booting up with the computer. You can get rid of some of these a couple of ways : *) by going to Start->Program Files->Startup and deleting these (i.e. via right-click): *) Run 'msconfig' (Start->Run->msconfig), click on the 'Startup' tab, and uncheck anything that may not need to be there. If you are unsure if something belongs or not, you can query either here (computing.net) or Google to get more info about a particular component. 2) Get rid of spyware by downloading and installing Ad-aware. Many spyware programs will suck up resources and cause the kind of problem you are seeing. Also install and/or update your virus definitions (i.e. Norton or McAfee - I use Norton) and run a virus scan. 3) add more memory. Although this won't solve the problem it may help mitigate things a little. Personally I run WinME with 512MB, however I rarely see it use over 256MB so I would recommend that it you don't already have it. One last thing to help monitor this would be to use the 'Resource Meter' if installed in your version of Windows ME. You can get to this at Program Files->Accessories->System Tools->Resource Meter. This will show you a snaphot of your resource situation and it gets below 20%, you need to reboot soon. It is a good idea to create a shortcut for this and put it in your Startup folder so that it is in your System Tray and you can quickly see how your resources are holding up. Hope all this helps. Good Luck. Bill

Nice one Bill, the only thing I would add to that is that Win2000 progs were never designed to be run on WinME pc's. I have seen a lot of users with this same problem and it's all down to the fact that Win2000 progs run best on Win2000. That's why I still stick to good old Office '97 - because it works and never goes wrong.

Mark, Word 2000 is not a Win2000 only program. In fact, the minimum requirements for Word 2000 are a 75MHZ Pentium with 16MB RAM running Windows 95. Granted it won't run well, but it should run. Staying with Office '97 is fine until someone sends you a document saved in a newer Word format and then you can't open it or perhaps make the edits you need to. Personally I've been running Word 2000 on Win98, WinME, WinNT and Win2000 computers without much trouble. However, the system resources do take a big hit as Word loads and this may put many Win9x/ME computers "over the top" and require a reboot. More info about tweaking Word 2000 can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q239431 Bill