Hi, Hugh.
There are generally three ways to transition from Win98 to WinXP:
1. Upgrade - start with Win98 and end up with WinXP in the same location.
WinXP Setup attempts to migrate all your hardware drivers to WinXP versions
and to migrate your applications to WinXP settings - and it is usually
successful, but not always.
2. Clean install - format the volume and install WinXP from scratch.
Backup your data before you start, because everything on that volume will be
erased. Don't bother to backup Win98; you won't use it anymore. Don't
bother to backup your device drivers; any that worked with Win98 almost
certainly will not work with WinXP; drivers for all but the oldest, newest
and most exotic devices probably are on the WinXP CD-ROM. Don't bother to
backup your applications; you'll have to install them into WinXP from their
original media. After installation of WinXP and your apps, restore your
data files, then point the apps to the new locations.
3. Dual boot - keep Win98 and install WinXP into a different volume. This
lets you choose each time you reboot whether to boot into Win98 or WinXP for
that session. You'll need to install drivers and apps into WinXP, as in 2,
but you can boot into Win98 until you have all the WinXP drivers you need.
Then you can delete Win98 to recover the disk space it uses.
Upgrade works most of the time. But some upgraders report many niggling
problems that work almost right but not quite; many of them give up and do a
clean install after all. A clean install has the added advantage of getting
rid of all that accumulated deadwood that most of us have been meaning to
get rid of, anyhow.
The problems you mention might not require a reinstall, though. For
example, you can right-click on your Word document file and tell WinXP to
open it with Word, not with Notepad. Or go to Control Panel | Folder
Options | File Types and tell it which program to use to open .doc files.
Explore WinXP a bit and you should find solutions for your other transition
problems. You HAVE found the Help and Support Center, haven't you? It's
pretty good. ;<)
RC
