You will probably have to buy a unit with Windows 8. I had to. I didn't want a laptop though - prefer a PC. I just use the Internet and e-mail - plus I bought Office Student 2013 so that I could get Word. I live in Canada - so things may be different in the U.S. I would strongly suggest that if your dd needs Word etc. that she buy the product from Microsoft - NOT from a Best Buy or similar store. Many people have had problems using the key card - the store employees will tell you that should it need to be reloaded (say husband deletes the program or something else happens) you just have to reload it. Not true - one time load only - and then you have to call Windows which starts a whole new story. And I asked since I used to have the Windows Office Professional discs. Your printer is probably for an XP or 7. I bought a new laser black & white printer because I was tired of the cost of the colour inkjet cartridges that I did not need. After finding out the hard way that my Internet provider (one of the 2 largest in Canada) does not support Windows 8 when it comes to security I decided to check the printer discs - sure enough XP and 7. So I had to call the printer company. In the meantime, my Internet provider had me uninstall the 60 day trial of Norton anti-virus that came with the computer to load back on my paid-for anti-virus. I did tell the CS person that I had Windows 8 - he didn't know that Rogers wasn't capable with it. So I had to call the computer company. They installed Defender for me. NOTE - Windows 8 is NOT! compatible with MSE - you need to use Defender if going with Microsoft. When you install the printer you will need to disable Defender. Turning it back on as not as easy as it should be - and rebooting didn't do it. I finally went to the Action Centre - that is how I did it. The computer company will strongly suggest that you make a flash drive of the factory settings and store it in a safe place - and buy the best flash drive you can find. I did - but as it was loading, it stopped and the "next" went grey. I checked on the trouble shooting forum and many people had the same problem - but could solve the issue. So I called the computer people again after checking said :flash drive and seeing the dreaded XP and 7 on it. The fellow had just been through this with a few other people. When you get to "next" and can't proceed, you go up to the body where the size of the flash drive is noted and you hit it. I needed the 64 bit - which I had purchased. That did the trick. My husband's company is not going to go with Windows 8 -they are waiting for 10. To make matters worse, my first home computer had Millenium. I do not use a cell phone, tablet etc. so 90% of the features are useless to me. But since your daughter probably does use said features she might be okay - except that Windows 8 has problems. I don't even use Facebook. I didn't want to buy a laptop - and I didn't want to deal with a MAC - but all things considered - a MAC is looking pretty good at this point. By the way, since we all get those fake calls from people pretending to work for Windows, make sure that your daughter always has a Case Number and that when she receives a call back that the person knows the Number. I had 7 such calls with my last computer and I know that Windows never calls you unless you call them. So during a 3 week period I had 9 scam calls during the exact time frames that I was expecting a call from Windows. The calls were extremely abusive because I expected the person to know my case number and the reason for my call. When they didn't the abusive nature of the calls became horrendous. Finally, I looked for a North American number for Microsoft - found one just outside of Toronto, but it went to the Philippines - but not India. The fellow I spoke with was very helpful and agreed that there was just too much coincidence going on. So he put me through to a tech who quoted me my Case Number and fixed my problem right away - and then gave me a new case number. Apparently a lot of people feel that the scam calls are inside jobs - just like in any industry. So just be careful. I am lucky to be able to turn the computer on and off. My Rogers Internet keeps telling me to upgrade to Internet 9 (I have Internet 10) and that my Rogers e-mail can't be upgraded because my computer does not have the proper specifications - the implication being that it is too old - just the reverse. Hope everything works out better for you. My husband uses Word 2010 - naturally. I am also not keen on 2013!

3Katz, that's what I did this past week-- but I was carrying both my ipad and my laptop and I wasn't happy with how they were secured. I am feeling like I need something a little more structured for a laptop. Ive been looking and have seen some good options-- but haven't settled on anything yet. I was really hoping for someone's rave reviews to nudge me in a direction. My laptop isn't small-- Gscience's 11" and 13" open up lots of opportunities because of their size. I need a larger screen so my lapto is 15.6" ... it's long (but very thin). I DO have a tote that accommodates it but it is a large unstructured tote -- well the leather is strong but the space inside is unstructured. Maybe I need to look for a leather tote with separators? Thanks Gscience and 3Katz!

So many thread on this subject. The biggest problem appears to be finding a good installer who doesn’t treat it like granite. Hard to find as this product is new in the US.

Yes the 220V is the way to go and I would recommend it.. The microwave is a microwave. I think all microwaves are pretty much the same. Someone can correct me if that's not true. I don't think they cook well and we rarely use the microwave function except for popcorn or to melt butter. If you primarily use a microwave save yourself a lot of money and just buy a $100 microwave. The Advantium is an expensive piece of equipment and can do so much more. . It serves as my second oven since I only have one wall oven. You can roast a chicken and it tastes like roasted chicken not microwave food. I make my own pizza and reheat the left overs in the advantium which comes out great not soggy like the microwave. If you buy a lot of prepackaged foods, there are a lot of built in programs for them; ie fish sticks, chicken tenders etc. There is no preheating the oven so that's a time saver. To use the speed cook function, you have to switch out the ceramic plate (used for microwave) to a metal plate. Someone on this forum found that to be way too much work???. If that's too much trouble for you or you have children that can't be trained to follow instructions, the Advantium is not for you. It comes with a cook book which you can use to guide you on the various settings for your own recipes. It takes a bit of thought but not really difficult. Whatever you do, don't get the 120V. they are not worth the money and don't function very well. Happy cooking Inga