Just lately when I switch on my pc, I get this 'hotkeyboard' icon on the taskbar. If I don't close it, I cannot use my pc. It closes down ok and I have no further problems but what is it? I have windows xp, home edition.

Hotkeyboard helps you avoid doing repetitive tasks. (loading webpages and running programs) It assigns common actions to 'hot' keys to do your task faster. (You assign a key to the task you want) If I want to open a certain web page I can assign one key to it. You do this inside of your hotkeyboard. Like Answerpool could have the A key assigned to it. I would press A along with shift key (inside the hot keyboard) to launch the website. I remember a long time ago my brother installed this. I think it is mostly used for businesses who assign the same command keys for everyone on multiple computers. There is an option to not have it come up on start up. see here That site will also show you the basics of the hot keyboard. If it is causing you problems just uninstall it. You can go to your start menu and there should be an uninstall icon next to hotkeyboard. The freeware does say it comes with uninstall. You should also go to your control panel and click on add/remove programs and delete it. I have been reading that it has a keystroke logger attached to it. (not sure how that works but that doesn't sound good) I also found message boards with people posting about their problems with hotkeyboard so you aren't the only one. To me, it just seems like more trouble than it is is worth. (although it does sound really cool) Please let me know what you decided to do.