Mick - I'm fairly happy with what I've got installed, so I'm not too bothered about playing with the virtual machine thing.
Treewind - I will have a look for the suggestions you made.

I still haven't sussed out the password thing, but the folders asking for one are ones that YAST set up without me asking it to. The shared folder from the Windows partition on the Linux/Win box worked fine across the network. The Linux share test I set up allowed me to read the files, but when I tried to save something from the Windows 'puter onto the linux share, it didn't let me do so.
I then went back to basics and looked at file permissions on the linux drive. I found a couple of different ways (graphic interface and command line) which I can use to make the folder or files therein read/write/executable. Once I sussed that, I changed permissions on my Share Test folder and once I did that, the Windows box could write and save files on the Linux folder.
I don't know if it makes things less secure, as I think I have given open permission to change the shared files, but the wireless network is encrypted, so it should only be me (mostly) acessing any of it, so it's probably okay... ?
Quack!
GtD.