Joye has a good point. Ubunu is free, easy to install, very fast and
capable of doing all the everyday chores most casual users need.
It also has a huge repository of free software, some of which is very
sophisticated.
I have it installed on my Netbook and an old Win2k machine, and it's
never failed me in any of the myriad ways windows can.

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:08 PM, Joyce A <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The best solution may have been to install Ubuntu.  A couple of years ago, I
> bought a brand-new eMachines, running Windows Vista.  I discovered it did
> not have a dial-up modem, so it was useless to me since I'm still stuck with
> dial-up service.  When I decided to install a modem in it, and wanted to
> install Windows XP instead of Vista, I ran into the same convoluted
> licensing maze.
>
> So now the "new" computer has a modem and Ubuntu tweaked for dial-up, thanks
> to my good friends at OpenOffice.org, and I'll be starting to use it this
> coming Wednesday.
>
> Joyce in SE Ohio
>
> On 4/24/2011 2:02 AM, Bruce Lund wrote:
>>
>> Well, that's bull****! Not that you wrote it. But that those greedy folks
>> at Microsoft make this so difficult (and expensive.) But there is some very
>> good news which I share below and I actually have you to thank for it.
>>
>>>>> Microsoft licensing is very technical and has even changed throughout
>>>>> the life of Windows XP. . . OEM software is tied to the original computer,
>>>>> and specifically the motherboard.  I'm guessing since you have an
>>>>> eMachines,it came with that machine and is an OEM version.
>
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