just noticed that when I try to run system restore I get the message that it has encountered a problem and needs to close? My anti virus and spyware progs are up to date...any ideas?

Some advice to begin with, turn System Restore OFF!!! It is way more of a problem than a problem solver. The main reason for this is that many many viruses hide out in the system restore area of the OS. Virus programmers aim at this feature because system restore is constantly snapshotting the system and refreshing therefore, virus files are executed very often. My job is computer maintenance/optimization. My PC is tip-top as far as protection goes. I have never had to deal with system restore problems because I ALWAYS turn it off. I do it free, too. Go download AVG Anti-Virus, Adaware SE Personal, and Spybot Search&Destroy. All Free. All the best. Use Spybot's "Immunization" feature. It rules. Feel free to email me: messiahnet@kc.rr.com

Firstly, are you trying to set a restore point or restore from a certain time? Personally, I have never had virus probs with system restore, although occasionally it is unable to restore from a previous date. It is saved me hours of time and trouble on other occasions though.I would recommend leaving it on unless you are thorough enough ( I'm not ) to manually set restore points every time you change something.