In the end up I did things a little bass ackward. I Backed up my old c: drive ,used Windows easy transfer to store settings. Did a clean install. Used Windows transfer to restore old settings. Found that Windows transfer is shite and didn't backup my thunderbird or firefox settings. Got on the tinternet and found out what to do. Transfered the relevant old XP settings from Documents and settings to User. reinstalled every single programme I had ever installed. Found out things were still horribly wrong. Broke down and cried for a bit. Uninstalled every programme I had just reinstalled. Formatted C: and did a clean install again. Reinstalled every programme again. Transferred the Thunderbird and Firefox settings from XP to 7 again. Went into a corner and rocked my self to sleep in a fetal position when everything seemed to work.