Both CDBurnerXP and IMGBurn offer Burn ISO to Disk off of their main menu. I've included links to both website. They are free tools and both quite capable.

Thanks. Installed CDBurnerXP. Too easy! Well, the first time....

I chose SLAX Popcorn because it looked easy & small. But was a bit mystified by the options that came up, couldn't work out how to get to the actual programs or find files. Didn't have a good look tho - too tired atm.

Also downloaded Ubuntu because someone said that was a good one to start with. Chose the other because it had finished downloading first tho... then when I tried burning Ubantu to a CD-R identical to the other, it spat it out, said it was the wrong media. I have another couple of cd-r discs, different brand, but same story.

If you can tell me how to use SLAX, or point me in the direction of some instructions, or if you can suggest a better liveCD distribution apart from Ubuntu, for someone used to Windows & not savvy with DOS type stuff, I'm all ears! Thanks again for your help so far.

Having looked at SLAX, I would recommend you switch to Ubuntu instead. The great thing about Ubuntu is the huge amount of community support, documentation, and forums dedicated to it.

It is easy to look up common tasks, and most things can be solved without using the command line, a definite bonus for anyone with a fear of command prompts

If I need to solve a problem on a different distro, sometimes I'll put 'Ubuntu' in the google search simply because there's so many posts and articles on it that I'm more likely to find a solution.

The CD should just burn like your SLAX one did. They are both ISO images. Make sure the image you have is a .iso, and that you have downloaded the desktop edition.

Right, for some reason, the burner program was being temperamental, as I tried a couple of times without success, then switched the program off & restarted it & it burned the program no worries. It's great thanks & that's what I'm using now, on the machine that wouldn't boot in Windows!

Now I've got to work out how to transfer my files & network the machines. They were networked with Windows before, but don't work ATM. It also seems that I can't load Ubuntu in another partition ATM because I'll still lose my files from Windows when the partition's reformatted to shrink it to fit.

I'm glad you got it working

If you want to share files over a network between windows and Linux you will need Samba. I think the Samba client comes installed with Ubuntu, so you should be able to access existing Windows shares from your Linux machine already.

If you want to share a folder from the Linux computer so that the Windows ones can access it, then you will need to install Samba Server.

If you go to the System menu, then Administration, then Synaptic package manager, this will open the package manager. This is how you install or remove software in Ubuntu. Just search for what you want to install, tick it, and click Apply.

Thanks for that. At present I'm transferring files with a 1gb flash drive. Very tedious, not least because I only have one screen & keyboard, which I have to plug into the relevant machine to use it! Nearly there tho! Just ordered a 16GB thumb drive for next time I might need to do this!

Re networking & Samba, will I need to install it or make any changes on the Windows machine? There is an app for networking on Ubuntu, but I have no idea what IP addresses etc to enter.

I hope you didn't have to carry your monitor and keyboard far!

The 'networking' option in the 'Places' menu works just like the Network window in Vista. It will automatically detect any windows shares on your network, and show them as icons that you can open.

I've just assumed that you have successfully connected the Ubuntu computer to your network, and that it can access the internet?

You should see a network icon in the top right hand corner of the screen. This will give you information about the network you are connected to.

If you already have windows shares on your other computers, then you don't need to do anything at all. They should just appear in the network window. If you don't have windows shares set up then there are many guides on how to do this:
Windows XP Simple File Sharing

Any problems, just give us a shout.