well I have followed the directions given on that microsoft help forum that I linked above, and the scan showed no problem with XP

I also used the cleaning programs, defragged, and ran other scans and updates and even upgraded to internet explorer 8 but altho my 'puter is sure running faster and better, the problem re the deleting persists. I have renamed files, moved files and tried a host of other things

so tomorrow I am going to contact miscrosoft and see what free live help they can give, as I really do need a permanent fix for this.

way too weird!