I'm posting this on it's own so any answers will be more "searchable" for others.My new system will of course have "USB 2" where I have only had USB 1 to date..I understand that there will be NO improvement in USB port speed until I buy a "USB 2" piece of hardware to plug into it. No problem..However, am I going to have to change all my cables to USB 2 "style" ?Is there a difference in "basic" cables betwee 1 & 2 ? I'm sure there are "better" cables than others, but will my cables with current printer, scanner, broadband cable remain the same for now ?I thought this would be easy to find out, but my time spent on various websites did not supply an answer, so I came "home" to ask :-)A nice link to all the answers would be just fine..Best,

http://www.intel.com/technology/usb/W. Sieffert

Tom,USB 2 is both backward and forward compatible (in case you want to use your time machine and come back to plug something in). You should be OK with what you have.Sorry - I don't have a link (unless you want me to post this somewhere else and then I can link you to it?) ;-)Rich.Sorry - didn't see the link posted above.

I've seen USB 2.0 cards that type A (flat) style connectors. Type B connectors are the box ones. I recently bought a USB 2.0 scanner and it came with a cable that was Type B to Type A. I can easily hook it up to my USB 1.0 computer so you shouldn't have a problem.

Thanks everyone.. at least it's the way I wanted it to be this time :-) Can use either way..Bottom line I'm seeing then is, new style USB2 cables are different only on the hardware side but same on the computer end. Makes sense.. odd for MS :-lol

Yeah but....

Hi Staggerwing,what I found out was that XP at the moment doesen't fully support USB2 completely, there is a type of patch on the MS up-date site that tries to bridge between USB1 and 2, but I ran it with the patch,then without,(I un-installed it to see what would happen) it gave me a warning saying that some things would not work properly, but I haven't actualy noticed anything at all to date,if you or anyone esle can shed any light on this then please let us knowcheers.Steve,

>Hi Staggerwing,>what I found out was that XP at the moment doesen't fully>support USB2 completely, there is a type of patch on the MS>up-date site that tries to bridge between USB1 and 2, but I>ran it with the patch,then without,(I un-installed it to see>what would happen) it gave me a warning saying that some>things would not work properly, but I haven't actualy noticed>anything at all to date,>if you or anyone esle can shed any light on this then please>let us know>cheers.>Steve,Windows XP Service Pack 1 gives USB v2 support. SP1 is an isn't a patch. It upgrades the version of Windows so it's more of a program upgrade. SP1 allows you to take advantage of new softwear and technologies. Future Service Packs will do the same.

HI Steve,My system seems to be running smoothly at this point. I have updated WinXP with their current downloads but have not run into anything better or worse so far :-)It could be some time before I have an actual USB2 peripheral to test on it, as all mine SHOULD be either in mid life or newer on USB1, so won't get replaced until they die on me.My immediate concern back in Dec before I had the first piece of the new stuff was that I might need all new cords to even pick up where my old system left off.Thanks for the input, I'll certainly repost if something acts up OR gets much better...From what I read, FireWire is still the way to go if you want full speed.Best,