William,
As I would understand it, WinXP is an operating system (i.e. it ties the
system components - CPU, RAM, Display Adapter, soundcard etc.- together into
a working unit with an interface.
That OS happens to include rock-bottom basic word processing (wordpad,
notepad) and graphics (mspaint) as extras.
Looked at like that, MS are hardly knocking themselves out, compared with
the software bundles a dealer would throw in. But then MS gets its knuckles
wrapped when it attempts to 'dominate' the software market.
You really need a separate application to handle graphic files with any
degree of finesse.
Chek