You can now run ubuntu right in windows with the use of wubi so you can run it as if it were a program in windows. However the particular distro you are asking me about in that link is NOT ubuntu per say, it is a distro that someone has created using ubunutu core, they have altered it to their linking and added some additional programs and removed some of the original ones. I know nothing of that particular distro at all never even heard of it so not sure how long lived it will be and be supported. Now to the real ubuntu it is widely used and many like it. I have used it in the past it is not my fave distro of linux. I personally use Mepis Linux to me it is one of the easiest to get set up and running and for people used to windows since it uses the KDE desktop manager rather than Gnome like ubuntu, however you can get Kubuntu which is ubuntu using the KDE desktop instead of the Gnome. I know that is sounding like a bunch of strange talk but it does make a difference. If you wanted to try ubuntu I would highly suggest this book it is the one that got me started and it is an excellent resource especially for ubuntu. Ubuntu for Non-Geeks I think his latest edition is 4, you would definitely want which ever is the latest one. I picked mine up at Barnes and Noble locally. The thing with ubuntu is they update the versions frequently so it is likely that what ever the book is for will not be the latest version of ubuntu. To understand that you can look at this wiki to see the various versions of ubuntu List of Ubuntu releases What I personally would suggest is that you get yourself a linux live cd what ever you prefer in distro, and simply just put in the cd and boot your pc from that cd and it will allow you to run linux strictly from that cd and never touch your windows at all, that way you can test drive it and see what you think then when you are wanting to go back to windows just remove the cd and reboot the pc back as normal to windows. That is the preferred way to do any banking these days because what ever you do while using the live cd is not saved to the hard drive and is much like working in a safe box. Here is where you can pick up a free kubuntu cd https://login.launchpad.net/JxWlf4vnC5G7sfBL/+decide register and log in and fill out the info for a free live cd. They usually take about a week to arrive.

sp3 is exactly the same nothing has changed with it what I am saying is those are the end of support days that MS has issued. If it caused problems originally it is still the same service pack and would likely have the same response. I have one of mine that still has sp2 also because of the AMD processor and some of the conflicts it had with sp3, whether I will try to go to sp3 I have not decided yet. But if I did I would do it not through windows updates but from the actual sp3 update site either by ordering the cd or downloading the update then I would follow all the original suggestions for installing it like disconnecting from internet, disabling all antivirus programs and firewalls and doing the install that way or even in safe mode, that would give the best results and is how it has been suggested to do it since the beginning. Of course many people had no problem installing sp3 but for those who did have problems it was pretty scary going and definitely put some off of trying it.

Thanks everyone. I didn't imagine folks would try to locate this file and check on their computers. that's very nice of everyone. I think people are finding the short guide (which is just a few pages). The manual is different (it's over 40 pages) - I will link it here: http://www.dvdflick.net/guide/guide_new.pdf This is what I can't get to print. Most other documents do print. I have had occasional trouble printing - but usually it's a pdf file that only Acrobat will read (or at least some pdf readers won't read them). had this experience with some Medicare/government documents. Saving to my hard drive doesn't help. Bob - I think you had the right document. I looked at properties as well - and sure enough, it says printing not allowed. This is really bizarre to me that printing is not allowed. That makes it very difficult to refer to the manual while you are actually working with the software. I see that the author wants me to ask permission to print - it's password protected. He's asked to be contacted via the forum - so I've just done that. Bob - thanks for the linux/ubuntu link. I have no idea what any of that means. I can download and burn to disc - but don't know what it would look like to boot into linux - never done it - don't know if I could figure it out. I think this is useful sometimes - but this isn't so urgent. So I will leave learning linux for another time when I'm not drowning in more pressing tech clean-ups. Thank you. Lynn.

Thanks again, I did pull the HDD, and it was a big job... go figure. It was under the floppy inside a metal cage and with I/O cards blocking the way out, it even had hold down screws from both sides (a real battleship) that required me pulling the CD/RW too. I then connected it as an external storage device to one of my XP computers, and thus to my home network. So I copied all the files I needed (I think) to my wife's current desktop. Then I wondered if I could put it all back together, and did with few problems/reworks. That done I turned it on to see if it worked, in its non-complete way, and it did. So I tried again (now that I wasn't worried about data loss) to install SuSE, my oldest Linux Live CD (Installation) and it failed again, but I noticed that during the timed decision time it offered an F2 key option for "text only" - I figured I'd hit that and see where it went. That was enough, away the installation went which automatically partitioned the HDD and moved W98 into its own partition.. and took about 1.5 GBytes for Linux. The installation automatically handled W98 and created a dual boot startup page. The installation drug on for a long time, maybe an hour and I had to check back from time-to-time to give my decision on some items. When it was done it asked if I wanted the graphic interface, KDE, I input "yes" and I ended up with the graphical desktop. I guess the [F2 = text only] referred only to the input device for the installation. During installation the mouse didn't work, so I had to tab and hit the return to interact. It seems the CPU requirement for "cmov" came after SuSE 8.0. I looked in the SuSE user manual, paper back book, for commands and found the list of very familiar Unix commands, like ls (List) and grep (search), I though they were DOS commands, they are not. Anyway, as the graphic interface works I don't need the Unix commands, but did note Linux will handle DOS commands too, just put an "m" in front, e.g., dir becomes mdir. I haven't tried to transfer data out of the windows area to the USB, but I can look at files in the Windows area, and doing that I'm sure I an copy and paste to an external device. bob414 the KDE desktop has an icon for the W98 file system and I will connect a "thumb drive" to a USB and see how it shows up... it may offer the drag and drop you mention for the Ubuntu.