2GB should be more than enough for anyone

Turns out Win32 won't create new threads under low memory conditions. Oh, seems obvious in hindsight -- but I didn't realize I was hitting the 2GB barrier.

Now, if only the hardware vendors -- namely for the A/D data acquisition boards I use -- would support 64-bit Windows...

WGA no longer supported on XP SP2?

Due to a virus, I wiped and reinstalled XP Home SP2 on a six-year-old Dell laptop. But I couldn't run Windows upgrades -- it kept trying to run Windows Genuine Advantage but never getting through the whole process to display the pass/fail result. I have a feeling it's perhaps because Microsoft support for XP SP2 ended July 13, 2010 (same date as Windows 2000!). By manually downloading and installing the SP3 service pack, I was able to finally get through Windows Update and WGA.

Finally -- a reason for Vista and W7

I finally found something XP can't do -- handle a 4TB USB hard drive. I use those to back up a file server, and I had to upgrade the computer that performs those backups from XP to Vista (cheaper than W7) in order to recognize the 4TB USB hard drive.