Thankyou everyone for your replies, especially Barry with his very descriptive reply. I have since found out my problems are being caused by a dying Graphics card, BUT I did change my browser & email to Mozillz Firefox & Thunderbird.. Very impressed with both of them.. Thankyou one & all ........Judy I have found Windows 7 to be compatible with most of my Win XP software except for the Macbeth Victorian Pioneer BDM cds. However, they run well when in "XP Mode" in Windows 7. The catch is that XP Mode is not available in the Home or Home Premium versions of Win 7, you need Windows 7 Professional or higher. I am running Windows 7 Professional 64bit OEM (cost AU$160) and it works well with all of my 32bit programs. The only drawback that I can see is that Windows 7 does not come with an imbedded email program (such as Outlook Express did with Windows XP). You either have to use the web based WindowsLive program or do like I did and install Mozilla's Thunderbird email program which works well on Win 7. I also use Firefox as my web browser because of the security issues associated with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it is well known that IE has all sorts of virus and malware weaknesses. Cheers, Barry Howard, Victoria, Aust. ________________________________