1) I have XP. This CD works on XP.
2) This company does not make a more advanced program in Russian as they do in other languages. As far as I can tell, this 2 CD set is the full extent of their offerings in Russian.

I found this program very useful in learning some important basic vocabulary and getting more comfortable hearing and interacting with spoken Russian. The first CD is set up as a series of lessons and games on 8 different topics -- basic words (hello, goodbye, excuse me, etc.), foods, numbers, time of day, basic phrases, body parts, countries, and objects you might buy shopping like clothes.

In the lesson, a picture is shown, for example a plane. The word for plane is shown in English and in Russian (in cyrillic) and a Russian speaker says the word. There are two speakers on the CD, with noticeably different accents. It is interesting to compare the two accents and sort of triangulate the standard pronunciation. It also helps when you can't understand one of them, listening to the other one usually clarifies. SO, you see the meaning of the word, you see the word in English, you see the word in Russian, and you listen to a native speaker say the word. This is GREAT! I can't tell you how much of this I retained from all this great linguistic input!

So then there is a game to go along with each lesson, which is basically memory. They say a word in Russian and you have to click on the right picture. Simple. There are four different games you can play of varying difficulty levels. And it's really more of a test than a game, but hey when i graduated from college i got an engraved plaque saying i never had to take another test in my life. Didn't you? Anyways... This first CD was really helpful. I really have retained about all of the words on the CD, which is pretty amazing to me. There is also a speech/pronunciation section, but I didn't use it.

The second CD is a little different. It's more of the "immersion" that the title claims. They start spouting sentences full of words you probably don't know, and you're supposed to pick out like which picture they're talking about based on the fact that you heard the word "red" and "shirt" in there somewhere. But it's a little baffling. I'm going to hold off on doing the second CD until I go through some of my other books a bit more. But it's essentially set up the same -- lessons and then "games" to test and reinforce what you learned.

IN SUMMARY, very valuable vocabulary building. The setup of the lessons lends itself to a high level of retention, and the native Russian speakers are great for self-taught book people to hear. There are no grammar lessons, there are no writing exercises, there is no conversation on your part, there is no instruction in cyrillic, the list of vocabulary could have been a bit more extensive, and you don't even necessarily learn how to spell the words you learn. Therefore, it is only ONE weapon among many you should have if you really intend to beat the Russian language into submission. (just kidding) But it is very good at what it undertakes.

And need I repeat that for the price, you can't beat it.

"Good Starter for willing students.", This is a very good program for people who are just starting to learn the Russian language. This program gives students a few basic words and phrases that will help a student get introduced to the language. It is worth the money in my opinion however the program is geared toward a younger age group and does not go very deep into the Russian language. Overall, this program would be a good way to start.

"Excellent starter course but see comments below", This is an excellent starter course in Russian. There are dozens of multimedia and interactive lessons in just the two CD's, enough probably to fill a one-semester introductory course. The coolest aspect of the course is the digital speech-recognition feature which allows you to improve your pronunciation by comparison with the native speaker's. I also like the way you can highlight words you don't know with your mouse and pop up the definition of the word, or go right to the included dictionary for more information. This is very convenient and handy when doing the exercises if you can't recall the meaning of a word, and is a lot faster than looking it up manually in a book dictionary.

However, for the serious student, I'd recommend spending the extra money and getting the 5-CD Beginner to Intermediate course or the 8-CD Deluxe course. I've previously used the 8-CD edition of the Spanish course, and it's a fine program. Since I was already familiar with the Instant Immersion approach from that, I thought I would try the same one for Russian. Since you'll have to buy the complete course anyway if you want to progress beyond the level where this course leaves off, I would just buy it right from the start.

In the Deluxe edition, four of the eight CDs are devoted to the computer-based learning portion, which contain about 60 activities and exercises per CD on the four CD's, so that's about 240 total. That's a lot of material and it took me several months to go through it on the Spanish course. The other four CD's are audio-based only and contain further material on grammar, speaking exercises and dialog, and so on.

Overall, this is a good little starter program, but it leaves off at the beginner level, as I said. For the more serious student I recommend getting either of the other two editions, which will take you from the beginner to intermediate level. After that, there is an Advanced Instant Immersion course you can get to continue progressing from there.

"Pretty Good", I thought that this software ASSISTED me in learning russian. It helped me learn basic words. For that price, it is very good!!!

"Learn Russian easily", This is a program that will help you learn Russian through games. It's purpose is to teach you mainly through listening. The purpose is not to teach you how to read or write or even put together full sentences. CD 2 is definitely great if you want to improve your listening but have nothing to listen to. The CD is all in Russian and teaches you to get used to it. The first Cd is fun because you can play their games or even make up your own using the games they give you. Before spending 100s of dollars on grammar books and such, pay ... for this program. If you cannot grasp this simple vocab - maybe Russian is not for you.