I'm thinking about buying a laptop to use in France (and maybe in a wireless network at home in US). I want to run Windows XP, Word, Excel, Photoshop and, possibly, some other graphics software, and, of course to access the internet, e-mail, etc. I'll need to be able to connect to a scanner, printer and speakers in both places, probably NOT wireless in France.

I want lots of RAM and hard-drive memory as I know from experience that I'll add more memory-eating software as time passes.

Weight is not a primary consideration, although I'm not trying to see how much I can lug.

I do need pretty good screen resolution and a decent size keyboard. I'm not into gaming.

Any advice you can give this non-techie old lady will be received with gratitude.

Also, if you care to throw in some advice on firewalls and anti-virus software, I'm trying to wean myself off of Norton (speaking of memory hogs).