Q: I moved my computer from one room of my house to another. Now my USB printer won't work. Can you tell me what's wrong?

A: My guess is that you put the USB cable from the printer into a front USB slot when in the past you had it in a rear slot or visa versa. Sometimes you need to install drivers again if you change the USB port.

As a general rule of thumb, USB ports at the back of a PC are actually part of the motherboard, while ports in the front are fed to the motherboard by wires. Many manufacturers require that their devices be plugged into USB ports at the back of a PC only.

Q: For some unknown reason, my start page in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has changed to something I don't recognize. I change it back to what I want, but then the next time I launch IE, the wrong site is displayed again. What's going on?

A: Your browser (IE) has probably been hijacked, which is an insidious form of destructive activity. In general, it's a form of spyware, and unless you're running a program to keep spyware and browser hijackings at bay, you could be the next victim.

Spyware is software that modifies your default startup and search pages. You may have noticed that whenever you perform a search, a strange screen is used instead of your preferred Google or other page. You may see items added to your Favorites folder that are next to impossible to remove, or a new taskbar that's been added to the top of your screen. All these are examples of hijacking.

Why do they do this? One reason is to force you to visit the hijacker's Web site so they can inflate their Web site's traffic statistics for higher advertising revenues. They could do it just to market their product, or they could do it just to annoy the heck out of you.

Even AOL is guilty. It adds itself to IE's trusted sites in your security settings. This causes your computer to ignore the most frequently used security settings.

If you can change the hijacking back to your original settings, you've still been hijacked, but not seriously. One hijacker actually removes the Tools/Internet Options menu item from your browser so you can't even attempt to reset your browser settings.

Unfortunately, most hijackings require virtual dynamite to get your settings restored and to eradicate the hijacking activity. Registry editing is the dynamite, and this alone can cause damage if you're not careful.

There are several software programs (utilities) that help with hijackings.

Ad-aware's Ad-watch is my favorite. Ad-watch is only available with the purchase of Ad-aware Professional ($40) or Ad-aware Plus ($28).

The difference between the Pro and Plus versions involves the amount of control you, the user, have over your system. For $12 more, I'd spring for the Ad-aware Pro and watch spyware cry. You can purchase a copy of Ad-aware Pro or Plus or even download the free version of Ad-aware from Lavasoft at www.lavasoftusa.com/purchase/home.

April Miller Cripliver of Chesterton holds a doctorate in management information systems and is a computer hardware and software consultant. E-mail your computer questions to april@cripliver.com, and be sure to specify your operating system and other pertinent PC information with your query. The opinions above are solely hers.