More than likely, you could add one G on memory yourself for less than $90, the Vista upgrade from the XP OS that the system came with would be $99. So, to get your HP installed with Vista, you are looking at close to $200, plus the time it takes to install the memory module (quite easy, the module will come with instructions) and the time it takes to install Vista, and the fact that if you are going to do a fresh, clean install, you will need to backup any files and reinstall any programs already on your hard drive. Some folks enjoy doing this kind of work (myself included), others find it to be a giant pain. If it's not your cup of tea, you might wait. I am betting that the manufacturers are going to have some great deals comming up in Feb. March, in anticipation of folks wanting to upgrade to Vista. I don't believe Vista will add very much at all to the price preinstalled from manuacturers, as they are paying much less for their Vista lisencing than you would buying Vista out of a box. Even though I think deals will get hotter, I broke down and bought a laptop, but the smart move probably would have been to wait a month or two, IMHO.

Thanks, Raven. I'm sure he's behind on lots of stuff. Early in 2009, I had him change his update settings to notify him of updates, but not automatically download. That was to hold off on sp1 (at a time when I think I read here that folks were having trouble with it - but I didn't follow that topic, so didn't realize sp1 had become a good idea and that sp2 followed). We also set it that way bc. his computer was automatically updating and then rebooting when he was in the middle of doing other things. So this was to allow him to time his own downloads and installations. But he just never thought of it - and I didn't think I needed to keep track for him. I do keep track of his Avast, superantispyware, malwarebyte and spywareblaster. Every now and then when he's done surfing I have him leave out the laptop and go ahead and update and scan. I'll have to keep track of more than that, obviously. I got foxit reader on my ancient laptop in my office and love it. It takes so little room and does what I need quickly. Do you like pdf-xchange viewer more than foxit reader? Or does he need to use firefox to use foxit reader? I installed firefox for him - and set up tabs with the places he likes to go (did that in the summer) - but he hasn't used it. He's a bit resistant to tech changes. He balked when I got Tivo's - although he loves it now. He's a musician - and I got him Protools so he could record the music he wrote. That was over 1 1/2 years ago - and he hasn't learned it yet - he's barely scratched the surface. Last spring he bought an Imac bc. it was better for recording music. And now he's finally setting up his den and equipment. I'm hoping he'll actually learn the software this year. I'll take care of the rest for him so the only learning curve he has is Protools (certainly the most challenging of them all). But I digress. I'll check his other updates and run Secunia - I'm pretty sure I already put that on his computer last year. Thanks. Lynn.

One downloadable program you can try is Thunderbird. And to set it up with a comcast email account, you can check this page.(It says it's for TB 16 and up, so it should have all the info you need to do that for the version of TB you'd be installing (24.5.0).) A few others: eM Client looks & feels like Outlook 2003 (not Outlook Express) as I recall and is more of a suite (including calendar). The free version only allows 2 accounts to be installed, but that's probably all you would need, based on your original post. MailBird is popular, too. It looks and works just a bit differently than Windows Live Mail but may be worth a look. FWIW, here is a link to Windows Essentials' help forum for Windows Live Mail, in case you want to search those threads for comcast questions/issues or ask a question yourself. :-) Just for the record, after reading this thread at an email help site, esp. the reference to trojans and other malware, I would avoid Incredimail like the plague. This post was edited by not2bright on Sat, May 10, 14 at 6:55

I wanted to update, I just read here about an open office program, but from reading that, I am now worried my old doc need to be all converted to the new office 2007. I saved money buying the student version so it only like 120 dollars on Amazon, but the full version with outlook is super expensive. I never liked outlook. I use gmail and windows calander. It's a new calander on vista. Any suggestions will be appreciated. When I get the new office 2007 student can I help my friend out by reading her old apple files? Will it be able to read apples files, because I heard the newer windows and apple would be compatable. She has some old apple files, she can't read on her new apple computer.