Hi again It it works OK now I would continue to do so until such time as it does keel over Although its always best to keep up with security updates, hackers will have moved on from XP to Win7 or 8, I can't see them wasting to much time on an obsolete OS I only changed to W7 due to hardware failure and couldn't see the point of throwing more money at it Computers are so much cheaper now than they ever were it doesn't make much sense to me to upgrade Back in the mid 1980's I paid 400gpb for an Amiga 500, thats more that I paid for this laptop (and money was worth a lot more then) As long as you keep good back ups and that includes email and settings, then I would keep going until such time as you need to change I tried Linux but as you say you need time and some interest in it to use it in my opinion (generally all the Linux aficionados leap up at this point and say its easy, well it isn't) I found some software wouldn't run under W7 but it was only things I either didn't need or didn't use so wasn't to stressed about it Hardware wasn't a problem, even an old epson works under W7 I used Outlook Express under XP, so had to change to Thunderbird but am pleased I did and also prefer that to OE Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 19/01/2014 00:40, Lori Camper wrote: > That is what I am thinking. I put a bigger hard drive and more ram > in my computer last summer, and it is running great with Win XP. I > have no reason to need a new computer, so I'm very disappointed at > the thought of buying a new one when things are running fine. If I > upgrade to Win 8, I'll be maxing out the ram, and the software and > printer I have won't work, so it will be a big snowball effect. If > that's the case, I think I might as well buy a new computer. > > If I only used it for recreational use and didn't have to have it for > work (I work from home), I might give Linux a try. I'm not sure that > I have the time to invest in learning about Linux and then > troubleshooting anything that doesn't work quite right. > > Lori Camper