Windows

Point value changed by question poster.

anything in the event log.
i would look for stuff clogging the pipe, running in the background. ad ware, spy ware, viruses, worms? search bars
i don't know of any adjustment (well, i think there is one for large files but i've never had the need) and i get stuff off microsoft routinely at 64k transfer with our 512/512 dsl connection on my win2k pro box with very minimal hardware power. tell about nic and tell about sp's and critical updates maybe...
maybe you are running something else slowing it down. 3rd party spyware detector or norton internet security...?

I have NIS running on both the xp laptop and on the pc - even with wpa encryprtion running on the laptop, i am still getting over 200kbs download. All rules have been checked on the software firewalls, there is no difference. There is no spyware running or viruses on the pc.
I know that when d/loading from different internet sites, they sometimes use different ports, maybe the port on the pc is closed/restricting the speed from microsoft on the pc?
Does anyone know which ports microsoft use?

I'll send you over to dslreports.com They have some utilities there where you can analyze your system and tweek your TCP/IP connection with their Dr. TCP/IP. you can also test your broadband connection to see if what your ISP says you got is actually what you get.

Another aspect to consider is bandwidth throttling from Microsoft's site. Since demand for downloads from their sites can be astronomically huge, they will throttle the amount that will go out. Another is ICMP source quench is telling Microsoft to slow down.