Foolestroupe -

Actually, if this update solves a few of the remaining security problems that WinXP has had, it is one MORE incentive to move up to XP.

I sympathize (empathize even) with the financial limits you may have, but unfortunately that's a situation you have to deal with. About the only "help" I can offer is to suggest that you look carefully at how many threads you've contributed to, in which you mention lost data, system failures, broken programs and such; and see if the nickels and dimes that dribble away there might be better spent on a more current system.

I still run Win95 on one machine that is incapable of running anything later. It is used rarely, but there are occasional times when it gets pretty heavy use because it's a portable.

I have Win98SE on an old machine that was "crippled" by a hard drive failure. I replaced the drive from salvage, but simply haven't set it up for heavy use. It fills the need for "guests" to have a place to play if our main machines are in use.

I have Win2K on Lin's machine, which I don't use much; but I do get to do the maintenance so I'm pretty intimately familiar with it. It's very "powerful;" but it clunks, clanks, rattles, and fights with you - much like your Win95.

I use WinXP - because it's the best thing that's come along. It is currently the ONLY Windows OS I would recommend to anyone getting a new one. You should be feeling bad that you can't afford it, but you'd really like it once you learned a little about it.

From your descriptions, it's unlikely that your current hardware would support a useful installation of WinXP. In your situation, you might be better off looking at one of the 'NIX/NUX systems; but despite all it's good qualities, Win95 -or even Win98SE - is likely to become progressively more of a burden on you than it may be worth.

But as long as it works - charge on with it.

John