PolarPrincess - If you have a USB port, buy an external hard drive that connects to the USB port and copy ALL of your data (pictures and other personal files) to it. Then your data is safe and you can clean up the rest of the system. If not, burn them to CD for safety. THEN: 1 - Empty the Trash 2 - Search for files on the entire system, using this search pattern" *.bak (those are temporary files that can be deleted) 3 - Delete all of those files. 4 - Empty the trash again. 5 - Search for all *.tmp files and delete them 6 - Empty the trash again. 7 - Run the Windows XP "check disk" utility as described here: http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-chkdsk.html It may take quite a while ... 8 - Then try running the defragmentation program.

Thanks, folks, I'll pass these suggestions on to her. She lives more than 100 miles from the nearest "computer shop" and is trying to fix the problem with her nephew's help. It has them both stumped. Yes, ever since she installed Microsoft.NET framework 2.0, service pack 2 security update for Windows Vista Service pack she can no longer search for anything (using any search engineÂGoogle, Yahoo, Mozilla). An index page will come up but none of the links/sites will open. She canÂt X-out of that screen. She has to hit Alt/ctl/delete and restart task manager; the whole system closes down and she has to log back on. She can open her bookmarks, but canÂt go anywhere from them. She has a Compaq Presario computer. Windows Vista home basic. She has run McAfeeÂs virtual technician and security scans. They said everything was fine. It isnÂt. She has shut down and restarted her computer several times. Nothing seems to work.

Support has been, or will be dropped for all versions of XP except for service pack 3. However, XP remains my favorite windows version. My wife moved to Vista on her laptop and hated it. She now has Windows 7 and says it is an improvement over Vista. Some day, I plan to move to Windows 7 and skip Vista. This requires a complete clean out of the system - reformat of the disk. I dread that move, and expect some applications and hardware will no longer be compatible. If certain applications become incompatible, I'll resist the move as long as I can. These would be applications that are too expensive for me as a retiree to replace. I have an old finite element analysis program that is no longer compatible. To buy a new version is $16,000 the last time I priced it, so that will not be done unless I land a consulting job that needs it and can pay for it - not likely in my remaining life. If you are having difficulty in finding your pictures, use the "Find" command to search your hard drive. If your disk has been subdivided into logical drives, you may have to search each logical drive. The find comamnd does not need the entire name of the file to find it, just part of the name will do. It will, of course, list all files matching the same fragment. For example, if you searched for all occurences of *.jpg, you'll get every file having extension " jpg", not necessarily an efficent thing to do. Suppose you have the followiong files: 1998 Joey 1.tif 1998 Joey 2.jpg 2000 Joey 1.doc You could locate all these files by searching on "joey" and very likely would not get many extraenous hits. File names that contined the string, joey, would also appear such as jumpjoey.tif . Recommendation: In the future, create folders with meaningful names in which to store your images. That way, you'll know where they are. Folder names such as: Vacation Jun 2000 Year 2001 pic Year 2002 pic 110Canon 111Canon are examples. Tip: Its a good idea when you set up a new computer to set aside a data drive for documnets and images. If you have one hard drive, a logical drive could be created on it. You would have 2 logical drives: one for the system files and the other for your personal files. I have 2 physical hard drives in my computer which becomes a natural thing to do. This separates your data from the system and application disk, and makes for more efficient use fo the "Find" command. On first pass, you need to search only the data drive, and if not found there, search the other drives. System and application files are humungous these days and requires much needless search time.

I don't think she was considering upgrading her current pc to a newer version of windows but updating by getting a new pc with a newer OS. I would not recommend trying to put one of the newer versions of windows on a very old pc it would have to be checked for compatibility before hand and likely would have a lot of things that would need to be changed and updated if it would work at all. Some other articles and videos that help explain and give you a look at what it is all about. Windows 8: 8 Things You Need to Know Is Windows 8 for you? #8. Getting Started With Windows 8 - Pro's N Con's and the new 8.1 coming out soon MEET WINDOWS 8.1 PREVIEW For those with windows 8 if you want to upgrade to 8.1 Microsoft makes Windows 8.1 more DIY-friendly with full versions Microsoft Windows 8.1 free to Windows 8 users, $119.99 and up for others First look at Windows 8.1 for those that are used to smart phones or tablets will see some similarities with this version of windows and how our phones and tablets work. I think the touch screen options are great, I am so used to them on my phone and tablet when I get back on my desktop I keep trying to pinch my monitor LOL! It does not like that. My thought is don't be afraid of the new technology it gives us a chance to work out those brain cells. But again don't let someone else tell you what you need!