While I do have sympathy, because I have been in that same boat before.... the sympathy is limited. I doubt seriously that it has anything to do with a 'joint effort' between MS and Adobe. While I do not consider MS to be an ethical company as far as their business practices go, I have to give them credit that they have managed to keep an awful lot of compatibility in place between their different versions of OS. Face it, technologies change, soon we will be living in the 64 bit world of hardware and software and one drives the other. For those who are not capable of keeping up, they will always be behind and be unhappy campers. For the rest, life will be great when it comes to the computing experience. A friend of mine is still trying to use Win 95, he is mostly successful, however, there are plenty of problems when he wants to change hardware or software. His tough luck for being bull headed. Folks should start thinking about where they want to be several years from now when it comes to their art work and the computer / OS that they use to create it with. If you are using 6 year old technology you will not have much of a leg to stand on when you start to complain. No offense to anyone, but I have been listening to this same complaint for a number of years and people should just really stop and think. Photoshop is expensive enough so that it is not sitting on every home pc, now is it. In other words it is not a $45 dollar shoot-em up game that will run on nearly every home computer. Its market is the art world and quite frankly if you can afford $600 US for PS, you ought to be able to afford a decent PC to run it on. Adobe has done a really good job of backward compatibility so do not blame them if PS is sluggish on your computer and you are using legacy hardware and software, blame yourself. BabaLouie

Don't give up on that cd yet... go to arrowkey.com , they have a freebie, or used to anyway, program that you can use to recover your files. Of course this is a limited program, but it is worth a shot. I have the full version, it has saved my posterior side several times. :) For what it is worth, I have had a ton of failures on Memorex cd-r and cd-r/w. I won't buy memorex anymore. BabaLouie

Attached Link: www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Paul and Caly thanks ... For those who have not been in an Apple Store, it is certainly an experience. The one I visited probably had 12 or so of the Apple laptops on display and powered up, G5s and other systems as well, a kids corner, software and hardware sections all in a big open area, plenty of room to amble about. One kid on a laptop had a shootem up on the laptop and on one of the G5 systems as well, he was wanting me to play against him, I knew better thought. :) A person could very easily spend a lot of time in there, again and again and again ..... BabaLouie

I have returned from the Apple store and I must say that I am completely impressed with the G5. It was very difficult to walk out of the Apple store without one. This has got to be the most thoroughly integragted system that I have ever seen, the Panther software is absolutely amazing. I spent 2 hours playing with a G5 and the software that comes loaded on it. This is one fast and beautiful piece of equipment. I opened the side panel up, the salesperson did not get nervous though, well not until I took out my screwdriver. :) Nice and clean on the inside, well thought out. Beautiful aluminum exterior. I now understand why Mac people talk about the 'experience' and 'feel' of a Mac, for those of you who are adamant Windows users, open your mind up, go to a Apple store and see for yourself. Yep, I am a new Mac convert.... I have seen the Light and now all is clear. :) take care, BabaLouie

Macmondo .... "I do not like to run my PCs on the net is I do not like my machine reporting my business to Redmond everytime I go online." Exactly one of the reasons I am leaving the PC world, being a part of the communications industry and being quite knowledgable in the PC/Win world I know all too well what is going on and am not comfortable in the least with what I see as a concerted effort between Intel and MS to create hardware and software systems that uniquely indentify my system and me too those who feel they have a need to know something about me, my purchases, site visits, hardware or software configurations. Intel has, IMO, become a horrid monoply. They have played so much with processor speeds and chipsets for the last 3 years, stringing along customers and manufactures that I can no longer justify buying their product. As far as MS goes I stopped buying their products about 3 years ago. Win2k Pro was my last MS purchase, if MS can give their product away or, at a reduced price to customers in foreign countries, all to prevent software pirates or the adoption of Linux, then they can jolly well sell their product to me at a reduced price. :) Having downloaded and read the white papers for Mac G5, as well as other research, I will be on my way to the Apple store about an hours drive away as soon as I post this. I hope the salesperson is up to speed as I have a hugh list of questions, the poor soul. :) A great weekend to all and a hearty thanks to the Mac and PC people for their helpful advice.... BabaLouie

For the Mac and Pc users that responded with helpful information I extend my thanks. I will be purchasing a G5 early next year and I will probably bug you silly in the MAC forum asking questions. :) Oh yes, I have been called names much worse that *sshole and on a number of occasions. One of the nice things I have learned after 48 years of life is to not let such petty things bother me. I just wonder what it is in a persons life that has made them so angry. Money is not a problem for me as I have indeed worked very hard all of life, why just last week I rewarded myself for my hard work by paying cash for a new 43 inch Pioneer flat screen plasma monitor and a Denon 2900 DVD player, total cost for me $6000. It is nice having money, but I assure you I have worked for every dime of it. No hurt feelings with anyone and peace to all ... BabaLouie

Yep... like Enigma a lot, have not heard Delerium though. BabaLouie

Well, many thanks to all for the interesting and if not somtimes opinionated responses. At least it has remained a friendly thread. :-) For the last 17 or so years I have built my own computers and have 5 or so years programming in 'C' so my teeth have been cut in the x86 world. I will be moving to the Mac world for a number of reasons, some having been mentiond already in this thread, but I will also be moving into the Mac world because I have not yet used one and the experience will be educational and certainly enjoyable. Of course I will still continue to use my 2 Windows systems for some time to come, not quite ready to give them up yet. :) I am not a gamer, money is not a problem and the bulk of the software that I currently have is cross platform so the initial investment will be limited primarily to hardware. Once again thanks for replying ... BabaLouie

Oh yeah, Ornlu .... I asked about Infected Mushroom at 3 different stores, each time the clerk did not know if I was insulting them or asking about a personal aliment. Probably not the best question to ask a woman I suppose. :-) What label do they record on ? thanks, BabaLouie

Diane Arkenstone is the wife of David Arkenstone. David has done some great work, he used to be with the Narada label, don't know that he still is. I found the 'Trance' music last night in the Dance section at Borders and FYE. I can see that I will be spending quite a bit of money there in the near future. thanks, BabaLouie

Well, I am listening to Dreamland by Robert Miles as I type this. An excellent CD, all synth generated, good beat and good female vocals. It has a mello techno sound to it. I have some Tangerine Dreams, Oystein Sevag and Mars Lasar, all good artists. Had not heard the 'trance' style until today, really like it. I will take a look at the other artists that have been suggested. thanks to all for replying, BabaLouie

I have used Poser 4, Bryce 5, Terragen, Photoshop 7 on Win2k sp 2 without any problems. This has been on both dual and single processor motherboards. CPUs are Intel and boards are Intel and ASUS. Graphics cards have been Matrox g400 max and PNY Nvidia boards. BabaLouie

Thanks Drac, I signed - # 116 BabaLouie

AgentSmith You are probably sooooo correct about what you have said about the Vector plan. If Corel starts production on Bryce again in the near future, it sure would be nice if they added 'toolkits and toys' as aftermarket add-ons. :) BabaLouie