Can anyone with Windows 7 Home version confirm that Microsoft Works is included please. I was helping a man who has this and he showed me what seemed a very versatile if light weight set of office type programs that he says came with his computer. As I always build my own computers and buy OEM operating systems I have never seen this myself. I trust I am not hijacking dedtired's thread as he too may find the answer beneficial.

Give it a shot, Reset WINSOCK entries Reset TCP/IP stack Go Start > Run (Start search in Vista) then type in: cmd Click OK (in Vista, while holding CTRL, and SHIFT, press Enter). At the Command Prompt, type in: netsh winsock reset catalog On the keyboard press Enter. Do that again and type in: netsh int ip reset reset.log Press Enter. Restart the computer. Note: Resetting the Winsock using netsh winsock reset catalog command in SP2 removes all the third-party LSPs and restores Winsock to factory default setting. Existing programs that uses their own LSPs need to be reinstalled again. Example: Google Desktop Search. ---------- Go Start > Run (Start search in Vista) and type in: cmd Click OK (in Vista, while holding CTRL, and SHIFT, press Enter). In the Command Prompt window type in following commands, and press Enter after each one: ipconfig /flushdns ipconfig /registerdns ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew Note the space before the forward slash / Restart the computer.

I also have an HP Pavilion - and thought last year motherboard was toast - at 2 years - but it was something else, so I paid for the other "card" whatever it was and the diagnositic ($50 in Canada). BUT prior to purchasing this computer I had an IBM - with an extended warrantly. Motherboard went at 3 years and 1 day - IBM would do nothing for me. I did not buy the extended warranty for the HP because of this. HP couldn't understand why not?! And IBM couldn't understand why I wouldn't buy another unit from them. Same thing with a good quality toaster - lasted 1 year and 2 weeks - warranty wouldn't cover - next toaster wouldn't even start - so now at 6 months with newest toaster. When my HP was in for service I was looking at other models, just in case and the HP rep was in the store - he told me not to bother with the extended warranties. Re the motherboard going at one year and one month - they can go any time. At work one day my hard drive crashed, the tech came and replaced it and by the time he got back to his office, the new one had crashed. Yet I know someone who is still operating a 12 year old computer. I am using XP on my HP. I don't know what I will get next time. I really only use it for e-mail and internet - no music, movies, games - ZIP. Just the basics trying to extend the life best I can. I would do as suggested and get a new tower - and make sure you get back you old drive if you have anything personal on it. I am event thinking of a 17 inch laptop - but I would need to plug in a "real" keyboard and mouse - I hate the laptop keyboards - they interfere with my 120 wpm typing.

Owbist - you articulated the decision factors beautifully. And that is what makes it difficult. Presently, all I do is load it on the camera and crop. I know I would like to be able to do some color/contrast/tone/brightening adjustments, be able to edit out troublesome aspects. Eventually, I would like to be able to clean older photos and change colors (I know I would have loved to have been able to change the colors of the walls in my house to assist with paint color choices). Whether I'd ever get to something like swapping heads or filters, I don't know (I don't even know what filters are). Another aspect that is important to me is good photo organizing tool. I've been reading reviews of software editing programs (many free), and the reviews don't even mention organizing photos. I'm not sure if that's bc. they all do it, so it's not the feature worth reviewing, or bc. they don't do it. By the way, this review site is very useful - for all kinds of digital photograph questions. I'll post the link here in case others are interested: http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/4488.aspx. Now if I knew how to make a tiny url of this, I would have done that. I think I even have that firefox addon, but don't know how to use it yet. I think I'm going to try Photofiltre first. Paintnet also looked good, as did photoscape. All are free. Does anyone here know photoscape? A couple of more questions, if that's okay. 1) why would someone want to resize a picture? 2) what's the advantage to having a card reader get the photos on the computer, rather than just connecting the camera to the computer via USB? Thanks everyone. Lynn.