Bree look on the side panel or top of the case and there should be a sticker there telling you Windows XP is inside and there should be a product key listed too. Was this a new computer? Was it local built? Go to my link below and download the small SIW program. It does not need to be installed, just double click on the exe file and it will run. This will tell you so much about your computer it is amazing. On the first screen click the second choice down on the left side - Operating system. In the new window you will see it tells you if your is XP Pro or Home and if it is full retail or OEM - I suspect OEM but that is fine. This is the top line on my computer, yours would look similar and hopefully say the service pack 2 is installed. Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 Look further down the right window and record the Product key (not the serial number as that is not so important) for future reference (this is the key that should be on the sticker somewhere on the outside of your case. I would suggest confronting the vendor but at this stage we do not know what you purchased or what you paid Here is a link that might be useful: Gregory Topala's SIW program

snidely - thx - I bet that's why sometimes when I roll my mouse around the screen zooms in and out - I never knew why. I bet my cntrl key gets stuck at times. i know a few others do. time for a new keyboard I know. My son told me that last wk when he visited from out of state. He just shook his head at my keyboard. It's also missing a key or 2... I took some off to clean under them and lost a few... my E has the F12 'key' on it. that one had a piece break off underneath it... yeah, guess I'd better do that yet this wk before I'm caught without any keys that work. thx - I will try that (on purpose). lol!

My advice below is based on experience and not favoritism. To qualify my advice I have to give a little rundown on what I did. I really hope it helps those looking to buy a new computer. I think the advice from damccoy is good solid advice. I'll share my information with you and try to keep it as short as possible. For several years I was an IT Manager for a portion of AT&T and had about 50-60 thousand users in that area. We went through a phase where we would give the users several different computers to choose from, depending on their usage. The choices were any of Gateway, Dell, HP, Sony, IBM, Compaq (pre-HP). The population of users were very heavy users and were in Sales, Engineering, Customer Service, Warehousing and a small Com. Arts group. They had to be up and running and productive each and every day. We had a contract with IBM to do our desk top support. Over time and from the complaints I was receiving from the IBM personnel I realized Dell, Compaq(pre-HP units) and Gateway were too proprietary to effectively keep everyone in production and minimize the number of desk top support personnel. The real work horses with the least amount of hardware problems turned out to be the HP, hands down. The majority of problems with these were cockpit problems where the user screwed up some settings. A close second was IBM and Sony, third was Compaq (now HP). The junk pile was full of Dell, Gateway. Since all of these groups were networked and many of the applications were grid based, super powerful computers with tons of memory, super large hard drives and fancy video just were not necessary. However, there is still a perception that if folks didn't have those things, they were working in the dark ages. I opted to disregard the "choice" issue and only provided 1 type computer with ample memory, fast processors, variety of video acceleration complimented with LCD monitors. If anyone needed something more, we would review the use and determine what was needed and procure anything determined essential. This of course minimized the variety of spare parts and made desk top support much more efficient to the tune of a savings of 4 million per month which is small change to a big company but was a savings non the less. Since they were already in the door, IBM came in quickly with an offer we couldn't refuse so we ended up going with their offer. So with that experience and being responsible for the budget and keeping people productive and allowing for future growth innovations that don't require getting all new equipment, I recommend an HP mid range computer line for the home and light business user. If you might be interested in Internet TV, you may want to go with the series that offer TV cards. If you are into gaming, you petty much already know what you want and what you need. Just an FYI..the computer I am using right now and for all my web based stuff is an HP Omnibook XE2 laptop that is almost 10 years old..448 MHZ 256 Meg RAM. It originally came with Windows 98 and along the way I upgraded it once with Windows 2000 and then again later with XP. Networking is via USB wireless. I have an IBM laptop about 8 years old and 2 Toshiba laptops about the same age. As for laptops, any of these 3 are fantastic and are more than a home or light business user would need. So consider that if you are looking for laptops. Yes, I sure do have the latest and greatest desk top computer with all the bells and whistles...HP of course.

Take a good look at duluthinbloomz helpful entry. This is a good example why I ask questions like this here rather than the Computer Forum. There I would have likely had someone say "check your volume control!" She -- explained exactly where to find the volume control and how to handle it ---- That is my kind of language! I love asking help from people who speak the same language and at the same speed! LOL BTW -- If help didn't come here, I would have had to go to the Computer Help Forum -- but always here first! Thanks everyone! Don't you just wonder if there will ever be a time of not needing those "Dah!" type reminders!