I am juggling family smartphones, PCs, Macs, and for a while, game consoles. The industry delights in reinventing things for their own sake, when all most of us want is a reliable, stable interface where you can learn enough to make your command structure automatic so you can focus on the work instead of having to look something up every time you want to do something. Don't they realize how hard it would be to drive a car if every week you came out to the driveway and all the controls were in a different place?

I've been able to keep up with the stuff I use, but am largely ignorant on the stuff I don't. Especially the vast network of social computing.

Focus on the tech you want to use. Nobody needs to learn coding to function, unless you're writing software.

For what you normally do, I'd say a simple Windows system would do the trick. Mac would too, but it sounds like you're already accustomed to XP.

Do you have software that only runs on XP? I had one application I really hated leaving behind, and the emulator didn't really do the trick. I still have an old laptop running XP in case I need it, but I don't use it much.

If you don't, consider either upgrading your computer to Windows 7, or maybe just buying a new, low-cost machine where all the heavy update lifting has been done.

At the very least, make sure your current system is as up to date as possible. I think you mentioned not even being at SP3 yet. Use the Windows Update function, and it should take care of most security issues and service packs.

Most systems are understandable if you mess with them enough, and the internet is a huge resource for computer questions. If you Google "screen develops weird paisley pattern and chirps like a canary," you can bet somebody else has the same problem, and often there's a fix in the same place.

Keep trying. It's how we can keep our fogey brains at least reasonably supple.