[George]

Regarding FAT 32 vs NTFS there may be a downside to switching to NTFS. Back about the first of the year I asked my pc guru if I should switch from FAT32 to NTFS since I was using a 40gb hard drive. I had read about the stability bit.

His reply was an emphatic NO. He then went on to explain to me that in the event of a crash, there were many file repairs that he could do with FAT32 to avoid a total re-formatting that were not possible with NTFS.

There may be contradictory opinions from other pc techs, but I think it behooves one not to arbitrarily recommend switching to a file system that cannot be reversed without being fully equipped with all the facts.

I don't believe anyone can tell another person they are not running a stable platform. Nor does anyone have the right to plant that seed of disatisfaction in another's mind. They should know how their own p.c. is performing.

I run XPHOME upgrade from 98SE. ADMIN cringes at the thought of that, yet I experience very few of the glitches I see all over these forums, and am usually running trouble free in all the beta testing we do unless it's an across the board bug. My pc guru told me it's the luck of the draw. No one shoe fits all.

Goes back to the old "if it don't be broke, don't try to fix it".

Regarding Microsoft automatic updates, it also is wise not to take everything that comes down the pipes. There are updates other than security related ones. You'd see that if you didn't take the auto update download/install route. Best to screen them and install the security related ones but use caution on many of the others. I personally do not use automatic download and install. I do it manually.

George