Andy Hall wrote:

Thanks to all who responded. I'm afraid I don't know enough Linux to make
that a sensible solution as the aged parents have almost got the hang of
Windows now and I think a total learning curve for both them and I would be
far too much stress.


I have to deal with the same issue, and on balance, for the
application, XP Professional was reluctantly my choice, although I
suppose one could use the home version. Five suggestions:

And a sixth: get a (free) ubuntu Linux CD set
(https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ if you can't download it and burn your
own) and let them run linux straight from the CD. Without tweaking they
*cannot* write to the HD so they can make as many mistakes as they wish
without affecting your Win install. They'll find the user interface
hardly any different from XP anyway and it will almost certainly give
them all the functionality they need.

(Apols if this has already been mentioned: I haven't been following all
the thread.)

Douglas de Lacey