Tiger: naw, there is no written policy in place *yet* (but i think this may change in the near future)... i.e. no one ever said i *couldn't* do it So for now it's a bit of a grey-area issue.

And anyway, i only use my own laptop when this comp goes down -- a backup system of sorts, as i need to access some special software to do my job...software that is only installed on these two systems, and i just-so-happen to plug into the network, force of habit i suppose .

As a side note, i think that my comp is more secure than the default Outlook/IE6 setups here at work...i know AVG is on their mail server, Spybot on each system, but that's about it...not sure about firewalls, spam filters, etc. It can't hurt me to ask the sysadmin.

Nihil: that's what i'm going to do, i probably need to allow for some option to install for all users?

Thanks again for all the replies!