I run XP with Word and Bryce open all the time and haven't had a problem. The only thing I have noticed is if I've got lots of apps running at once, the Bryce background screen very occasionally disappears when a menu is brought up in DTE, but that's only if I'm using over 700-ish Mb for other apps. It COULD be a memory problem, but I doubt it (as long as you're running >=128Mb). It might be a corrupted version of Word or Bryce (just re-install them to check) or it might even be a graphics card problem (but that's generally if the graphics start looking a bit frayed - stuff is left begin when you drag things, etc.) I advise re-installing both if it's causing hassle, because XP should be fine multi-tasking with many apps running at one time.