thanks for the info... but i had bought the 10 licenses not even to use realtime, ie register, mbam, i just wanted to show my support of it. i havent used any of my ten licenses, so on my systems, and those people around me who i take care of their systems, its all the free version, but every update when i visit their systems monthly, it reenables the service again. i dont mind on a fresh install, but if every update it resets it, well, thats why i just ask for the opportunity to have it 'sticky' to my setting, manual, since im using no features (scheduling, autoupdates, realtime protection) that require AUTO. so yes, in summary, though i own 10 licenses, all my versions are the free version, and still reset my MANUAL to AUTO every time i update the list. the option would be nice, its the only program in my arsenal that keeps coming back to be the 15th service when ive nothing open in xp in all systems, the rest all do fine with MANUAL since ive never needed anything running in the background... thanks, gg