Word Perfect is a word processor.
Windows XP is an operating system.
Is Microsoft Word installed?

By "Microsoft XP", do you mean, "MS Office XP"? It sounds like you are
another victim of Microsoft programmer's nasty habit of naming applications
in a confusing manner. This group is for questions about the MS Windows XP
operating system, which is like the engine of a car, as compared with a word
processor application (WordPerfect), which is like the dashboard radio of a
car.

You probably want to drill down through the "Office and Desktop
Applications" menu of the discussion groups, to come out here:

So I will cross post this reply to that group.

You're apparently mixing up apples and oranges here. When you say
"Microsoft XP," I assume you are talking about Microsoft *Windows* XP.
That's an operating system, and has nothing to do with WordPerfect.

WordPerfect is a word processor (one made by Corel), and can run
within Windows XP, just as it can run within other operating systems.
If you don't like WordPerfect and would like to use another word
processor instead, that's your choice (although personally, I think
WordPerfect is the best word processor on the market).

There are lots of other word processors to choose from, but you
haven't said anything about which one you have, or even whether you
have one. Again, Windows XP is an operating system, not a word
processor.

So, do you have another word processor? If so, which one? Depending on
what it is, it may or may not be capable of opening your WordPerfect
files. *Some* other word processors, but not all, have that
capability.

1.  Try first whether your Microsoft application (Works or Word or
something else) can read WPD files (formatted for Corel WordPerfect.)
This is probable, and if so you can "export" these files one by one in
a DOC or other format convenient for MS applications.

2.  Both WP files (type WPD) and Word files (type DOC) are
grossly enlarged by all sorts of formatting features 95 per cent
of users never need.   If you need to save space in long-term
storage, export these files in ASCII format (TXT files) to
minimize the space they fill.

3.  WordPerfect runs OK under Windows XP (which has a
"compatibility" module to adapt older software) so if you have
the WP CD you can instal it yourself.  It would be tedious to use
TXT or some other intermediate format, but there are probably
some public-domain third-party utilities which may be helpful
for this (cf. the slowness of both WP and Word and all elaborate
word processors.)

Jilly, your posting was a little confusing:  Did you buy buy a new computer
that had Microsoft XP Operating system on it, or, did you have  a new
operating system (Microsoft XP) installed on the computer that you already
owned, which already had WordPerfect  files on it??
If you bought a new computer that runs on XP Operating system but does not
have the Corel Word Perfect software, you will need to either install the
Word Perfect word processing software on your new computer, or you will need
to get another word processing program that will import the Word Perfect
files.  As other posters indicated, XP is the basic operating system on your
computer and you can use any number of word processing programs with XP.  
Some other posters have given you some links to get those programs.  I used
Microsoft works years ago and found it to be easy and simple to use.  It
depends on how complicated your word processing needs are.