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Considering that this would be another system for me, that is, not replacing the old one right away, I think I may try XP. (I can still use the main one for day-to-day, and set this up as a stand alone until I get the hang of the new OS.)

Do I understand that my OS will be calling Bill Gates and reporting what software I own? Can this be turned off?

I'm really only considering the jump to XP because I inherited a complete system for free that is supposedly crashed on a bad MB. (Hot vidcard, soundcard, memory, 450W power supply, DVDr and CDROMr are all supposed to be good. We'll see...)

Do I understand that my OS will be calling Bill Gates and reporting what software I own? Can this be turned off?

It can only be disabled by wearing your tin-foil hat when you use it. ;-)

No, XP doesn't "phone home" to tell Redmond what you're running. It does have an "activation" requirement, which is a form of registration, but that doesn't tell them anything about your programs either. All it does is keep you from installing the same copy of XP on multiple machines.

When you first install XP, you either have to activate it over an internet connection or by calling a toll-free number to get an activation code that you type in. Either way, they don't have to know anything about you except the machine-generated code that identifies your specific computer.