Got a slow laptop? Have you loaded Weather Bug or Google Desk Top? Programs like these remain running whenever you turn your machine is on, and use up your resources. Unless you have a powerful laptop or desktop shy away from installing them. As I mentioned below, just having the new OS Microsoft Vista on your laptop can slow it down. Old XP laptops used to come with 512 MEG RAM or 1 GIG. The Vista laptops today come with 3 GIGS of RAM, that tells you something. Over the last year the street has not been kind to Vista or Microsoft. Microsoft's stock, like their newest OS, is not going anywhere fast. Most companies are reluctant to upgrade for several reasons: cost and not an appreciable difference in function. Vista came out in seven "flavors". Enough choices to confuse even techs. There was a lot of Hype, several changes in release dates, and then plop. Now we are reading about Windows 7 on the horizon about 2 years out. I'm not going there, yet. I think that Microsoft like their OS code is so big that it is hard to move and make changes...one way or the other. I know a lot of people that have tried other systems like Apple's Mac. I bought a Mac desktop and a lap top and have been pleased with the simplicity and stability of the systems. Now... I still have 10 PC's, but who knows! BTW... XP Service Pack 3 is standard now on the Windows Update program.