You don't want to know about
installing Microsoft Windows XP.
Sadly, it's all I'm going to cover in this
w/u.
Please proceed to the next w/u at your
leisure.
The install routine worked and worked very quickly compared with Win98 (see recent experiences with that). Installing over Win98 appears to have retained most of the installed software and settings. I think WinXP identified a few installed programs it didn't like (all toys that came with hardware). It also recognised the sound (SBLive5.1) and video (Geforce3) cards okay.
However, USB HCF modem support is sadly lacking. Our Diamond SupraMAX 56K USB has the what must be the most common USB HCF chipset (Conexant), so I guess this is going to be a common problem for people upgrading. (Heh, if you manage to get a USB modem that supports the USB ACM modem standard, it'll probably work fine - and you'll have the bonus of a USB modem that'll work with Linux.) So we're online with a (slightly slower) serial modem.
Now, our Brother MFC-760, which we thought had native support, hasn't. It installed okay from the driver disk, though, without complaint about unsigned drivers. How odd! Even odder - it completely failed to print. The Brother website insists it's supported, WinXP insists it isn't. Oh goody...
We tried Windows Update. First it claimed to have downloaded 19M in a couple of seconds. Then it said it had an unexpected problem communicating with Microsoft Support Centre. Sigh!
More news, as it happens..!