Yes, I know the first one is "use *nix" but I am tired of fighting about it and my boss made the decision. The main question I have is whether to create an oracle-specific account or just use an administrator account. Also, any links to Windows best practices would be great. -- Stephen http://andertfamily.net/racing_reports.aspx Any idiot can run. It takes a special kind of idiot to run a marathon. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l