Chas, that is way too many questions to be answered in 2 or 3 paragraphs. Windows 7 is very good. Your favourite search engine will give you a plentiful supply of answer, coming here to the Gardenweb computer forum will also get you answers. Even Youtube these days has a wealth of video tutorials for computer repair.

Yes you can do your own updates and upgrades whether you mean software or hardware. This stuff is not difficult, it just requires a cool mind.

Acronis can be used but Windows 7 comes with it's built in backup program.

What you do not have with Windows 7 is an email program, however you can use Outlook that is/should be included in the office suite. Or you can install Live or a third party email program.

What I don't have is program disks for either win7 or office10. The original owner kept those. This machine was originally loaded with Vista. This is troublesome! You really need to unpack the computer, hook it up and try updating the Windows or Office software to ensure it has been registered with Microsoft.

with only 2Gb of memory with windows7 Ultimate you may have issues, that is not much memory for that operating system at all.

there is a great forum for windows 7 they have lots and lots of tutorials set up, I would highly recommend using that site.
Windows 7 Forums

there are ways to set up 7 to look more like xp so that the look may make it easier to adjust to.
Make the Windows 7 Taskbar Work More Like Windows XP or Vista

If you want that same classic mode (the gray toolbars and such), that does exist in Windows 7. Just right-click your desktop, choose Personalize, then scroll down and click "Windows Classic".

Make Windows 7 look like XP

for many more like this here is the google search for you
Make Windows 7 look like XP

My prefered method to move my data from one pc to another is using a usb thumb drive just put what I want to transfer on the thumb drive then stick that in the new pc and load it to that machine.

be sure you have your security programs up and running before connecting to the internet so you do not risk infection right off.

The 2 free ones I would suggest are AVAST or Microsoft Security Essentials. Also install Malwarebytes free and update and run it weekly.
Which ever AV you choose make sure you have the 64 bit version since your new windows 7 is 64bit.

Let us know what more you need.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (Win) - Detecting and Removing Malware

Free Antivirus

64-bit
to help you understand what 64 bit is all about

Download Microsoft Security Essentials
there you would choose the English one and in that drop down box the windows 7 64bit option.

I thought the hard part about my post was reading through it. I would think the first question could be answered with a link and not even a sentence.

I agree that the second question could involve a more detailed response although again I was hoping that there might be a link or two to help me out along with some extra detail perhaps. I want to be clear that I wasn't asking about maintanence except in so far as it involves moving my old data and programs to the new machine. I would think that is something that many of you have had to do and could suggest specific useful sites for info.

EXCUSE ME??? did you look at my reply to you that took me quite some time to compose and much of my time to find and POST 8 count them 8 LINKS to sites that can help you do exactly what you were asking for???

I do not know what more you want and I did explicitly say QUOTE
"Let us know what more you need."

you do realize we do this to help people we are not paid and we do it in our free time.

PLEASE take the time to read and VISIT the links I PROVIDED and then let us know if you need more.
THANK YOU( would really be nice to hear that back!)

Sorry ravencajun, That was a cross post. Your posting was exactly what I was looking for, thank you. I was responding to owbist. I had thought some of my question had been misinterpreted.

I suppose that I should have double checked my post AFTER posting. Presumaably I would have seen your reply and thanked you yesterday (although I believe I have seen some cross posts occur over hours). I also took some time (not as much as you, thanks again) to create my post and that helped create the cross post (13:42 vs 13:56).

And a brief comment on the advise. I will of course look at all of it. I am running avast on this laptop and think I will load it on the Vostro. I hadn't realized that 2 gig was minimal, but I'm sure that this machine can handle plenty more and I will look around for some more once I see how it is configured now.

re: ""Let us know what more you need."", I had asked (ok, maybe only implied) if 'you all' liked win7 and if I should learn the new approach rather than making it look like xp. What do you think? I appreciated owbists comment that the 7 layout was the way to go, do you agree?

Ah, so I am the bad guy! My first paragraph tells you everything I feel. Yes Raven was more forthcoming generously providing numerous links for you. My advice would provide millions of links allowing you to select those written in a style you might find comfortable and pertinent to the issue you might have at the time of searching.

Without having a Windows 7 machine in front of you I would venture that any link is virtually useless because you cannot do any tasks suggested. I am not trying to be hostile here but you really are expecting too much. The first link Raven gave is probably the best single piece of advice anyone can give, it is a great site that I often visit with an abundance of information.

I personally use linux on a daily basis but have both 7 and xp on my various computers, my husband uses 7 on his laptop and he prefers it with the change to make it look more like xp was less of a drastic change to him so that is what I have been using also. Turning off some of the 7 eye candy like aero will save you some resources and with only 2GB you should do that. On xp 2GB would have been sufficient but not on 7. However RAM is cheap so adding more is an option.

I would download Belarc and run it so you know exctly what is in that machine and that will help you for your memory needs later.
Belarc Advisor

The first thing I think I would do is make a clone of that system as is since you do not have any discs at all should you need to recover. Having an original cloned image would be the closest thing. Acronis can do that for you.
Hopefully it is a legit copy of windows 7 and it will be recognized as such by windows update but it is a bit suspicious that he wanted to keep the disc. Was this from a shop or an individual?

windows 7 does also have back up capabilities you can make use of.

I had checked the time of posts, when I posted mine Owbist's reply was there but nothing else. I am glad that is what happened and that my post was after all helpful for you.

Ravencajun, yes it was an individual who sold me his machine. He does have a small web consulting gig too. I probably should have been more concerned but I have been used to using set up machines for too many years I suppose. I guess that my professional friend and professional both must have had access to commercial accounts or something, because all my old xp systems came up validated.

I assume that I could fall back to Vista if there is an issue, or pay for the upgrade. There is certainly a windows vista sticker on the side. Is Vista to win7 expensive?

Anyway; I hadn't thought about immediately creating the Ghost copy of the NEW system. I was only focusing on any possible use for the old system for transfer purposes. Thanks for the tip.

Owbist; I actually did google and hit the specific site that ravencajun listed and you seconded, before I made my initial post, but I wasn't specifically looking for (or directed to) the Tutorials which were way down the site, so I missed them. It is hard to find the right thing when one doesn't know exactly what to look for. Thats why I asked for help.

I may not have another chance to respond here for a couple of days. There is Christmas, and I think that I will be the transport for my father in law going into the hospital tomorrow which will keep me hopping.