If you are going to post a log there please only take advice from that forum, you have a lot of things running that are un-needed, I will not offer advice while you work with the other forum: Looks like to many spy ware things adware 2007 resource hog, and then you have yahoo protection yop.exe O23 - Service: Ad-Aware 2007 Service (aawservice) - Lavasoft - C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware 2007\aawservice.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\jusched.exe" O4 - Global Startup: Kodak EasyShare software.lnk = C:\Program Files\Kodak\Kodak EasyShare software\bin\EasyShare.exe O4 - Global Startup: KODAK Software Updater.lnk = C:\Program Files\Kodak\KODAK Software Updater\7288971\Program\Kodak Software Updater.exe O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Reader Speed Launch.lnk = C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [updateMgr] C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AdobeUpdateManager.exe AcRdB7_0_9 O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HP Software Update] C:\Program Files\HP\HP Software Update\HPWuSchd2.exe O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [swg] C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNotifier.exe Do you need so many tool bars? O3 - Toolbar: Yahoo! Toolbar - (EF99BD32-C1FB-11D2-892F-0090271D4F88) - C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Companion\Installs\cpn1\yt.dll O3 - Toolbar: &Google - (2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F) - c:\program files\google\googletoolbar3.dll Be careful with hijack this do not make any changes un-less under expert supervision.....

I agree right now if you can keep your old pc working for you and wait till windows 7 comes out you will be avoiding having to purchase any upgrades. It will be out in about a year. If you have any friends that have pc knowledge likely they could easily help you install a new hard drive and some RAM, these are things I do myself but my first time I was pretty anxious. I also agree that the desktop is generally the best option unless you travel a lot and would need a laptop for that. My sister just asked me the same question and I talked her into a desktop pretty quickly, if you have not used a laptop try asking a friend with one to let you try it out for an hour or so, feel how the keyboard feels, see how you like the touch pad instead of a mouse, etc. If you have any problems seeing also consider the smaller screen of a laptop. I have pretty severe hand problems so using a smaller keyboard would be very difficult. Sitting in a chair with the laptop on your lap would require some type of laptop desk so you do not block the air flow. As stated updating and replacing parts in a laptop is much more difficult. One thing you could definitely do also rather than install a new hard drive in your pc is buy a stand alone usb backup hard drive and move all your thousands of pictures and music and other files and data to that hard drive and free up your hard drive in the pc, if you did that and got rid of any old programs you no longer need, clean out any junk files and folders, empty the recycle bin, defrag the hard drive you may find you have plenty of room on that 80Gig hard drive. I have been seeing some incredible prices lately on usb hard drives so you could easily find a nice size one for around $50, and you could use that stand alone hard drive with any new computer you buy in the future. Plus no one would have to install it for you, you just plug it into your usb port and then you can access it from your pc just like your other hard drive. Add some RAM to what ever belarc says is your limit for that pc or at least 2 gig and I bet you would be surprised. RAM is cheap. I just bought a 1gig stick for one of my computers and it was less than $20 shipped. If your current pc is a desktop I would also highly suggest turning it off unplug it and open the side panel up and clean out all the dust bunnies, that can really affect the performance of a pc. Cleaning the computer and its components ecost has some very good prices right now this search is for under $50 units but it gives you some ideas. well now you have lots of options and ways to go and up to you to make that big decision. Here is a link that might be useful: usb hard drives

I personally would not get a celeron processor not when you can get much better faster ones now days for great prices. I use linux 98% of the time and if I am online I am on linux, your old pc would be an excellent candidate for a linux distro, I am not a huge ubuntu fan, I do have it as a dual boot on my linux box but never use it, I use daily and LOVE Mepis linux, it is very easy to use and not that hard to transition to from windows, it uses KDE desktop which I find much more user friendly and more similar to windows. I have several computers I have them all connected to a KVM switch so I use only one monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers it is the perfect set up, with the click of a button I can switch back and forth between machines and Operating systems. The great thing about linux is you can try it with out installing or changing a thing on your pc. They have live cd which allows you to simply insert the cd into your pc reboot the pc to the cd and you can run it right off of the cd, when you want to go back to your regular OS take the cd out and reboot back to pc. That gives you a good feel for it and to see if all your "stuff" works well with linux, Mepis usually detects everything right out of the box unlike other distros. You can either order a cd for a couple of bucks or you can burn your own ISO disc to use for your live cd. You can find most all distros including Mepis and Ubuntu at DistroWatch.com you can order the ubuntu and kubuntu discs from Kubuntu kubuntu is the version of ubuntu that uses KDE desktop which is my preferred. you can also find the ubuntu cds available there for free too. It takes about 2 weeks to get them. Feel free to ask what ever you need to know, plus there are excellent dedicated linux forums that are extremely helpful, I use mepislovers. Mepis8 the newest version is available in regular 32 or 64 bit from here MEPIS Linux I am still on Mepis7 but that will change hopefully soon to 8. to use on very very old computers there are very small versions like puppy linux, damn small linux and the mepis version AntiX. You can even carry some on a usb flash drive.

Jennifer, I would have been here sooner but I had to eat my way through the M&Ms. My new system is 2 months old now and as anyone here who knows me I was dragged into the 21st centtury kicking and screaming. The old system, a HP 400mhz P2 WIN98 OE suited me for what I was doing. It was just the learning curve getting wider and wider. I spent a lot of time researching purveyors and manufacturers. I finally decided on a dual core Vista HP a6040n DVD +/- RW 2 gigs ram with a 17" flat screen monitor for around $1100.00 at Best Buy. I dumped the included trial Norton and installed AVG. The system has everything I need and more. I'm not a gamer either and I have no regrets. I was searching for a double drive system when I was advised that with the current software only one was necessary. No outward saving to the HD they told me. They were right. In actuality if you are copying a disk with Roxio 9 you 1: Insert the original in the drive, 2: Utilize the software, 3: When notified remove the original disk and replace it with a blank disk and 4: Click to finish. Nothing to it. Even I can do it. I am not certain if your version of Word will work on Vista. However, I am now using Open Office (Word compatible) without any concern. Whatever you get I am certain you will enjoy it greatly. Good Luck! Da