Quite a few commercial programs these days seem to have a minimum OS requirement of "98 or better." I'm wondering if the same is true for viruses? I haven't had any threat for about two months and check DAT updates daily. Is my present OS Windows 95 effectively screening out many of them? If so, should I expect a quantum lap in virus activity when I start using XP Home?

Well Root, I was running Windows 95 until recently and never had a virus problem. I updated to Windows 2000 two weeks ago and I've already picked up one virus. So from my point of view, your theory looks pretty good.

Many viruses target specific operating systems and it's always Microsoft's latest one that gets hit the most. So you are right to a degree Root. However, Windows XP is a better OS all round in my opinion. If you keep it properly protected and don't use Internet Explorer it should be OK.

One thing you can do with XP is set up a 'Limited User' account for everyday use. Then, if anything nasty does get onto the computer, it doesn't get the complete run of the system. A Limited User account can be a bit of a trial to get running properly but it is said to be a safer way to run. The main (Administrator) account only gets used for installing programs and computer maintenance.