Paradox - you're a genious! That worked great! Specifically, I went to order confirmation email, highlighted my license # and copied it onto the clipboard. Then I fired up FSX once again, I placed my cursor in the input box for the license #. Then I hovered my cursor over the OK/authorize button while I got ready for the next step. Then, quick as I possibly could, I hit Ctl-V to paste in the license # and I hit the left mouse button on the OK/authorize button. At first, it looked like it didn't work. But as i looked closely, I could see that it was still "thinking", evidently going out to the internet to verify my #. Within 15 seconds, voila! It came back as authorized! In the meantime, due to the problem mentioned earlier on this string, I could see that several other windows had accumulated asking for my license number. I just closed them all, closed FSX, and then reopened it. After I selected the NGX plane, it remained happy as a clam! Thank you Paradox! Steve