Hi all.
I've just got back today with a client's PC that I've been trying to reconfigure for 2 days after upgrading it (when I only allowed and can charge for half a day!)
The thing is we talk about Windows but we forget that actually Windows consists of a cobbling together of hundreds of programs all trying to work in unison - all designed and made by humans - all perfect or imperfect to a greater or lesser extent. Is it any wonder that there are problems with em from time to time - especially if the setup was not 'perfect to spec' in the beginning.
That's the starting point- you need to set things up right , clean and with the right drivers in the first place. If you don't, you'll have trouble later. If you do take the trouble you'll likely have much less of a 'bumpy ride'!
The next thing is the dicussions about 95 v 98 v ME v XP. Look at it this way - have BMW learnt nothing by making different versions of the 5 series between 1986 and now? Of course they have. Which do you think is the 'better' version - a 1988 model or a 2003? Silly question isn't it. Surely you assume that the latest knowledge base is built into the current model and the old one is 'out of date' although it still runs and gets you from A to B. Why should software be any different - I mean, chip design hasn't changed a BIT over the last 10 years has it?
Don't listen to any 'expert' who tells you 98 is 'better' than XP, but remember that XP Home is what it says it is. It's NOT Pro.
It's easy to bash Windows - and I'm no M$ fan as anyone who knows me will tell. But I remember what it was like when you had to choose your software to match your particular flavour of OS, to install printers and HOPE that they would work - at least in the app that you're presently working in, to set up pathetically slow serial connections to remote computers down a rubber device clamped over your phone receiver - and wonder why half of what you got out was rubbish and to have to spend ages learning the intricate commands of DOS to do the simplest things with your PC that would screw up totally just because you happen to have got 1 key stroke wrong when you typed the commands in.
Now we take ALL of those things for granted and it's all down to the foresight and skill of the likes of IBM, Jobs and, yes, even our friend Mr Gates.
Like today when I've been having BIG problems I run Windows and I realise just how little I am ACTUALLY in control of things. But I know that if I do it right, it will end up doing what I want it to do - and to a very high degree of reliablity as well.
:-/ 
[glb]My computer is just posessed I think......oh well Grrrrrrrrrrr