Don, you shouldn't be having the problem you describe. If you go start > search > files/folders, you will open a "search results" window, in the left pane of which you should see a message: "what do you want to search for?" Ignore the clever-alec stuff and choose "all files/folders." Two empty response boxes and a combo-box then appear in the left pane, where you can respectively enter all or part of a filename (or a filename with * wildcards); and/or text from the body of the file you want, and lastly where to search. Typically your hard drive (or all of them if you've got more than one) will be offered, but by clicking on the drop-down arrow at the right-hand end of the box, you can be more specific, or change the drive to be searched.

Jerry, in theory you should be able to uninstall, install or upgrade your operating system without affecting the data files you've created, but it's obviously safer to back them up first. One or two posters above were suggesting not that you uninstall Win98 first, but that you completely wipe/reformat the hard drive. This is probably the best option, but obviously makes it essential that you back up all data, together with any programs on the hard drive for which you do not have te disks from which to reinstall.

If/when you start afresh with a newly reformatted hard drive, you might consider creating a separate partition for all your data. This is because when you have installed XP, it is prety damned hard to remove it, should that become necessary for any reason. As XP refuses point-blank to delete itself, the simplest way is to reformat whatever drive or partition it's on. Hence the advantage of having your data stored separately.

Even better than partitioning the hard drive is to get a second hard drive. Ones that are a step or two behind the pace (say 20Gb) can be picked up for about 30 dollars on E-Bay (or Micro Mart in the UK), and for just storing data, 20Gb is huge, unless you're storing video and music CDs on your system. A second hard drive is probably the cheapest, most efficient way to sort out all your back-up, copying and security issues at a stroke, and would mean any future messing with your OS that might be necessary would be very much easier.

If creating an additional partition or installing a second hard drive is too daunting, then at least make sure that all your data files are stored within a single directory/folder (which can of course be sub-divided into as many sub-folders and sub-sub-folders etc, as you like). It makes them much easier to copy and back up. If this is the way they are stored on your present machine, then again it's going to be easier - you can copy the whole lot, complete with their folder/directory structure, in a single operation.

My take on XP in general is that it's hugely better than I'd dare hope. I'd been determined to stick with Win2000, which was a quantum leap better than all MS operating systems that went before it, but especially Win95/8/ME. And it comes without the bells and whistles and spoonfeeding that can make XP so irritating. HOWEVER.... some of those bells and whistles are actually useful. For instance you can plug a minidisk straight in to play through the speakers with no software mods at all. Picture management is better, there is a crude movie-maker, etc, etc.

Somewhat to my amazement, XP turns out to be every bit as robust as Win2000. And if IE6 ever restricts access, that will be down to a problem in the settings. In my limited experience, the drivers likely to be needed for oldish peripherals, including my long-in-the-tooth A3 postscript laserprinter and 1993 Taxan 21" screen, come with the package. It's a bit annoying that installing drivers for newer stuff can generate hysterical warnings that they have not been signed off for compatibility with XP. Such warnings have to be resolutely ignored.

One thing's for sure though: XP (and Win2000) are huge targets for viruses. Anti-virus defences will always be a step behind the latest nasties, and it's only a matter of time before some of them prevent Norton etc from running recovery operations.

Using a non-MS email client reduces exposure significantly. But the best defence is to heed whoever above said "Linux rulz" and ditch Microsoft altogether. Linux is free, it is a hugely powerful, yet simple, operating system, and there is a vast array of open source software already available (also freely supplied) that mimics most of the mainstream applications such as those in the MS Office suite. Anyone who understand anything about computers should bite this bullet and go for Linux, as several governments are now doing to Microsoft's great consternation.