I have an old 1996 IBM Aptiva running Windows 95 and a
Laptop running Windows XP Home Edition. I need to
transfer files from the IBM Aptiva to the laptop. How can
I do this ? Please explain the steps to me ?

Thank You.
Howie

if you have network cards inboth laptops then why not useing a cross-over cable to connect both laptops and pull your fiules from one to another

If you dont have this then you can simply use a nul modem cable and connect it to the com ports of the two laptops and use the built in desktop connection on laptops to connect them up. In the scenario one laptop becomes Master and the other Slave

Hope this helps