Okay, my topic title is beyond juvenile, but I am ready to chew nails and sledge hammer my monitor! Why did MS have to go and ruin a perfectly mediocre thing like Windows 98? Networking was easy! All the set up was in one place! Users could be set up in the blink of an eye! Now I have to call tech support to figure out what my own name is.

One hour on the phone with the people who sold me the PC, 30 minutes with HP (who label the CD for MS Works & Money thus: "Operating System CD Microsoft r Windows r XP Pro SP1a"), and I finally find out there is nothing wrong, just that there is ONE MORE THING I HAVE TO CHECK!!!!

Now I have to spend 5-10 minutes getting the appearance acceptable for EACH USER! PLUS, I never know if software is going to work right, and Heaven forbid someone's PC should break down and the user wants to sit at an XP computer! TWENTY MINUTES for that person. With Win98? LOG ON AND YOU ARE READY!

Not only that, the knitted NumLock won't stay on (what the Heck is that about MS? Afraid it would make the computer too user friendly?) AND every time you want to see what is inside a folder in Windows Explorer, you have to EXPAND THE FOLDER! Now there's a brilliant idea... the PLUS NEXT TO THE FOLDER NAME WASN'T ENOUGH??!?? Oh sure, you can specify to go further and open an entirely SEPARATE FOLDER but you can't say click is just to VIEW THE CONTENTS, not visually gut the folder and spill it's entrails all the way down the screen!

I suppose someone is going to tell me to go Mac, Linux, Mainframe or some such. Sorry - I don't control the pocketbook.
Thank you. This has been a public service announcement.