I'm thinking that it pays to go legit, and pay up for access. If you go with any of the bootleg versions, there are a few things you need to know:

- they run as virtual machines. That means that they are software simulations of standalone hardware. Anything inside the virtual machine is invisible to your anti-virus software, so you need to take steps to protect yourself.

- Before you do anything else, you need to download and install a browser. The ancient version of Internet Explorer that comes with the distribution is outdated and unsupported. Download Chrome, Opera or Firefox and make it your default browser.

- Next thing you want to do is install an anti-virus tool inside the VM. If this means buying a fresh software license (hopefully something compatibile with XP), the cost of that could probably pay most of a year's access to the real EPC.

- Once the AV package is installed, and before you run any scans, make sure it's current by running it's update process. Most vendor distributions aren't up to the minute.

- Once the AV package is installed and updated, you need to run the deepest scan possible. There is at least one virus hidden in the distribution.

- The VM runs an outdated XP operating system. Microsoft terminated support for XP earlier this year. But the distributed version is the original 15 year old XP. You still need to go to the Microsoft site and apply years of bug fixes and updates. You can't use automatic updates, because that would require the VM to run all the time. This process alone will take two days, because many of the fixes require reboots. Some of them are huge and will take hours to install.

- You need to bring Java and Adobe reader up to date as well.

- If you're thinking you'll just let it go, bear in mind that the virtual machine isn't perfectly isolated from your system. For one thing, it bridges into your network BEHIND your router or firewall. It also implements a software bridge into your printers and USB ports. It's an ideal vehicle for bypassing your security. Finally, it does communicate with the web, and who knows what it's doing.

- Once you've plugged all the security holes, it will run like a pig. It's XP for crying out loud, and it's running virtual. You should probably add a couple of gig of memory to avoid paging.

- If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you probably shouldn't be running this junk at all. If you do understand, then you probably won't want to. It's a shame Mercedes drove people to this, I don't understand why they cut off access.