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Three quarters of over-55s buy items online and almost as many (71%) like to browse shopping websites. Among all age groups, 83% now shop online while 40% have sold goods through sites such as Ebay.

While storing and managing photos online is widely popular, over-55s are keen retouchers. Almost half of them use desktop software to tweak

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their images, more than any other age group.

No home computer survey would be complete without stressing the potential risks that going online poses. The greatest worry was identity theft, for just under a third of respondents, most notably in the 25-34 (32%) and 35-44 (37%) age brackets. This was closely followed by fears of a virus attack (28%).

The survey also found that social networking has reached 22.9% of people, which is slightly more than the 21% who watch TV programmes, films and videos on their computer. A third of the respondents have played a computer game.

And the overall conclusion of those questioned? Three quarters of respondents feel they are not using their home computer to its full potential.

Over 1,000 people took part in the June 2007 survey, which was commissioned by Microsoft to find out how people are using their computers at home, six months after the launch of Windows Vista.