Q: I’m a 51-year-old newbie to the Internet. I have an old Dell Dimension 8100 that I bought as a used PC. It runs Windows ME. It has a 40GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM. The hard drive still has a lot of free space. It has Internet Explorer 6. (I’m told that’s being phased out by Google.) I have your books Windows Me For Dummies and More Windows for Dummies. I would like to know if I could find a disc to install Windows XP, or if should I buy a new PC.

A: You can still buy a Windows XP Home upgrade CD through Amazon. If you don’t plan to play computer games or do much video work on your PC, you can still get by with Windows XP. But if you want a PC that will last longer and do more, it’s probably time to invest in a new PC.

As for Internet Explorer, nobody’s really happy about Internet Explorer 6 still being around. You can still use Internet Explorer 6 to run searches through Google, but Google’s Gmail program doesn’t work well with that antiquated browser. Your quick ‘n’ easy solution is to upgrade to Firefox, a free alternative browser that’s light years ahead of Internet Explorer 6.