I've had machines running XP for years and they don't drag. Defrag your HD once in a while. Might help your issue of it begining to drag. On Vista however, it is just basically XP at an evolutionary step. I draw very many similarities to 98SE and ME. That is the difference between the XP and Vista.
I am sick of programs having 'known compatibility problems' in Vista however. Even this morning, I figured I'd load up my favorite version of Power DVD - but NO! You can't do that! It doesn't work with Vista! You need to get the latest version to work with Vista! I want my older version, not the new version because the old version when it takes screenshots it will capture subtitles and menu selections on screen. THe new versions don't do that.
Uggh!
-S
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