HI, one of my computers still uses XP ServPack3. It´s a must because Fractint works superbly in the XP dosbox and my other favorite program Artsong20 will not run in any W7 constellation. Acc my experience XP ist much safer due several reasons 1.No malware is produced for XP anymore (hopefully) 2. If there is an infection its a matter of minutes to get rid of it, quite the opposite of W7 as you may know. 3. A lot of good features too numerous to mention, just have disappeared in W7. Here´s a recommendation that helps against malware attacks.. 1. Of course you must have antivirus and malware scanning: For me it´s Bitdefender - 3ways: Antivirus, Quickscan Internet protection and Trafficlight all for Firefox. It´s free, silent (no popups) and reliable, see tests. 2.Scanners are Emsiscan and Malwarebytes, also free and together unbeatable. 3. In case an attack has taken place - the events have become very few - I use Process Explorer by Sysinternals, available from Microsoft. This lists ALL processes with cpu time, size, company, location and registry keys. So mostly you check only the manufacturers and have identified the criminal, possibly only adware and so on. It can kill a process,. if not possible to delete the file there is the Unlocker that always helps, maybe by system restart. ; This is meant as a discussion base if you´re uncertain if you should change to W7. Maybe others have more helpful hints. ; Albrecht