Well, the disc defragmentation did the trick. I scanned twenty pages in repeated scanning mode, did a couple search and replaces and arrowed up and down through some pages and a couple of other things, and it is back to the way it was when I installed it. I did forget to do a check for errors, and I will do that. But it appears that the program was slowing down due to a fragmented disc. Sorry, I didn't write down the statistics before I did the defrag, but I guess it is sufficient to know that that was the problem. Also, as per Nick's suggestion, I changed the setting in the Hold Scanner portion of the settings dialog box to Never. Thanks to all for the help. Sorry about the first couple of cranky messages. All I can do is quote someone who once said: "only a mediocre person is always at his best." Thanks, again.