Ok, the answer to this one as it comes from my husband who has a lot to do with XP on the machine he builds is Yes and Yes. XP is actually less likely to spit the dummy because of a sudden failure such as you describe than any of the previous versions including NT. Because XP uses a NT core with more modern peripherals it is a great OS and this is coming from someone who previously hated but endured earlier MS OS's. It is however a little bit picky about hardware maybe a little more or less so than NT and Win 2K. Basically, imagine NT stability and Win 98's ability to play games and other multimedia events. Just very quickly in reply to Eric's post above, Home edition is not a "casterated" version, it is the same critter except minus the networking tools and so on. And Chuck, you don't have to validate XP online, you can do it across the phone if you wish. This way you know it isn't sending anything to MS it shouldn't. It doesn't but some people undestandably prefer a little more security due to the very low trust levels in Microsoft.