Tledon

Hi every one I am new to this forum, so thought a hi would be in order. I am among the few who had to make that call to Microsoft a few times. They gave me no hassle about reactivating my OEM version of XP Home, but still I figure I should not have to do that every time I get a wild hair and upgrade my PC. So I did some research and found that after activation all I had to do is go to the system32 folder and copy the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files to an external disk, I can copy those files back instead of calling to reactivate. So far I have had no problems with the OS and upgrading with Microsofts web page has not been effected. On another note, if any one is getting as tired of Microsoft as I am there is an alternative OS. Xandros 3.0 is a free linux based OS and its GUI is comparable to that of Windows. The biggest draw back to this OS is hardware compatibility especially video cards. But if you check out their support page they have an HCL , as well as a link to computers that have Xandros pre-installed. Plus their is Linspire AKA Lindows, but they have the same HCL problems as well as the two versions I tested could not network to my windows network. These are options I thought are worth mentioning, and the Xandros is one I am seriously considering. Plus Xandros offers a way to install and run windows programs, so it might be the one way I can get away from the Big Brother Microsoft. Check out www.xandros.com