But..., if you have Windows XP, you have to save everything you want to keep, and load your computer from scratch. It's not really something you should do, unless you are quite experienced, and also have the original distribution disks from every program you want to use again, and are sure they will work with Windows 7..
Hmm!!! That's totally out for me. I'll wait till I get a new laptop & go from there.. :-)
Thanks for giving me some honest information instead of some of the smart remarks I see here when someone asks for help. I appreciate it.