Thanks everyone. A mixed bag of feedback, but mostly stick with XP and keep programs updated and run antispyware and antivirus programs. I do those already. I browse on Firefox and Chrome - never IE. Thanks Pipsy for your perspective. I hear it - and will keep it in mind. But given those that feel caution is sufficient for now, and my real constriction to switch systems this spring, I will probably continue with all cautions. Here are some follow up questions from everybody's posts: 1 - Unplugging external drive when not in use. I have a problem because my Synology NAS is always in use - as is one of my two external hard drives. First, I have lots of video stored on both that the family accesses to transfer to our Tivo's to watch on the television. That needs to be plugged in. I also have my desktop and my daughter's Mac esktop set to back up to the NAS weekly. Owbist - can you (or others) tell me what kind of vulnerability I'm exposing myself too? 2 - Can somebody provide a link and explanation of the ESET online scan? That's one new to me. 3 - I tried NoScript on my firefox and disabled it. Azinoh and the XP security article I mention below, both recommended it. But when I tried it, it was really interfering with a lot of things I was doing. That's been awhile so I dont' remember specifics, but it was just a big pain. Can somebody tell me more about the protection it offers - and are there settings to address how often it popped up and interfered with things? 4 - I do keep flash and java updated. I know many disable java, unfortunately one of the streaming stock programs I run depends on it. 5 - For my work laptop running Windows 7, I had a BSOD from conflicts with Avast. It was a known issue and was recommended to use MSE instead. If MSE isn't that good, should I risk trying Avast again? if there was a conflict in August/September, is it likely fixed since then? anybody know about this? 6 - In another post on this topic, somebody recommended this site/information: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/securing-xp-pcs-after-microsoft-drops-support/ This site is certainily suggesting to stop with XP - but offers some safety measures if you continue. One was setting up IE so that it can't connect to the internet (but will connect to the homenetwork). "Disable Web browsing: After support ends next April, consider reconfiguring Windows XP to block its access to the Internet. (Remember: You’ll no longer need IE or Windows Update for system updates from Microsoft.) To do so, open IE, go to Tools/Internet Options, and then click on Connections. Click the LAN settings button (see Figure 1) and then check the “Use a proxy server …” box (see Figure 2). Next, enter 127.0.0.1 into the Address box. Finally, check the “Bypass proxy server for local addresses” box." Until this week, I had not encountered proxy servers. I stumbled on it bc. in updating my husband's Windows 7 computer, somehow both chrome and FF got reset to use a proxy server and they weren't connecting to the internet. Using Chrome's troubleshooting info, I was able to disable using proxy server. But now that I've seen the setting, I could set up proxy server for just IE. My question is, will this prevent me from accessing the internet using FF and Chrome (I don't think so but want to be sure)? Is there any reason to do this if I'm the only one in the family with an XP computer and I don't go on IE? Lastly, why do I need to keep IE if I'm not getting Windows updates? is it also for other microsoft updates that I could use (like Word)? Thank you. Lynn.

I'm facing the same dilemma. I have two machines I don't want to trash. They were expensive and I put the best in them, 6 years ago. They run like a dream and I have no intention of dumping them. I also don't have the money to replace them. I pisses me off that I am forced to deal with two computers which have no issues at all. On the other hand, I also have an Iphone and IPad. I'm not crazy about Apple and how proprietary they are. I prefer Windows because everything runs on it. I don't want to deal learning a new operating system, although Windows 8 seems to be a challenge. I have a Windows 8 laptop collecting dust in the closet. I will have to deal with it eventually, but my XP machines keep me grounded and don't require the time and energy to start over. My gut feeling is Windows 8 will be another Vista. MS is going to have to make some major changes to Win8. People who work for a living are not happy with the new operating system. I want to wait this out. Apple is a slim possibility, but I would rather wait to see what Microsoft does in the near future to improve the 'workability' of Windows 8. Jane

That .etl didn't show up when I did a search. When I downloaded MSE earlier, it asked if I wanted to replace the file, I said yes. So a little while ago, I downloaded it again and had it sent to my desktop. Uninstalled the old, reinstalled the new one, then restarted. That alert didn't show up, but everything else seem to be running slow. I never had any of the other freebies installed on my computer except CA that came free from cable company. It still shows in add/remove but nothing's there. I used something you guys told me to use to remove the program in the first place before installing MSE. I hope this has taken care of my problem. Will let you know if it comes back next time I restart. Shirley For what it's worth, just in the time it took me to type this, my pc speeded back up to normal.

I didn't have any special problems turning up my Gateway Laptop with W8 a few months back. The biggest problems I had was learning (trial and error) to make one of the W8 tiles a start for Firefox (browser). When this is done the desktop converts to a W7 look. Yea, there's a lto of other "goodies" and I slowly started using them. In spite of the fact that it sometimes facilitates my crashing a dialog via my browser I love the "smart" touch pad. I find it hard using W7 laptop not being able to scroll using two fingers on the touch pad - I guess that's the feature I use the most. The last and only time I was ready to throw out a new notebook, an Acer, was when I couldn't get Vista to set up an network interface (best I can recall, these years later). But as I had purchased it from Walmart I just took it back and said I didn't want it - they refunded my purchase price. I found a demo laptop with XP and purchased it - that was my first Gateway.