Mark, I can comment on moving from Vista to Windows 8. Although the interface in Win 8 is superficially quite different, you can still use a lot of your old keystrokes to operate within it, and you can search for all sorts of things just by typing on the start screen. It's very likely a bit of a slog to start with, but really there's nothing that needs to put you off. If you miss having the Start Menu, you can install one of the utilities that restores it, such as Classic Shell. Good luck, and come back and ask questions as you wish. Vince. ======================================== Message Received: Nov 29 2013, 04:06 PM From: "mark bishop" To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Subject: [access-uk] using a external hard drive Hi As part of my plans for a new laptop I think I have decided to buy a laptop with less memory than I planned originally but to buy a separate hard drive to go with the laptop. 2 questions, when I want to put the items from my current laptop is this easy to do, also when wanting to put that stuff on the new laptop is that easy to do? Also how easy have people found switching to windows 8, particularly if you have swapped from windows vista? thanks Mark Bishop ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq