thanks gyula, I appreciate you answering, but it doesn't really help. first of all I'm actually insalling 4 programs, not two-- sidekick and truesync (the only software that will synch sidekick) as well as palm and hot synch, and, you are right, the truesync software was written before USB ports. But, somehow, in the past I've been able to get around that and get the hotsynch options to include a usb port and successfully synch. I've tried every possible order of installation-- uninstalling all programs, then installing palm (hotsynch), then sidekick, then true sync/ or sidekick/true sync/ palm (hotsynch)/ etc. etc.
but no matter how I've tried it this time around, when I try to synch for the first time, the truesync software wipes away the hotsynch usb option.
any ideas?