<cut> > One thing I was considering is that you also merge all of the xml files > together as you download them. I honestly don't know if this is as good > as it could be. I haven't touched xml before, so I only know the little > I've read. </cut> This might cause problems as when you remove a package you have to cut it out of the middle of the file somewhere, it might work better if you have a seperate file for each package. Easier to find and manipulate instead of having to load a possibly huge single file. Then to know what packages are installed just scan the directory and grab all the names, drop the .xml and list them. dan