hello.. new to this.. and so far this is a great forum...

i havent looked around on here yet, but had anyone loaded windows or a diff. os on there z1???

That would be extra-difficult on the Z-series because it uses a Hitachi SH4 based processor. No ready-made Windows CE will run on it since most CE devices use an ARM processor. To run Windows CE on the Z-series will require you to custom compile it using Platform Builder. You'd have to use existing drivers so that limits you to PB4.2. So far I haven't been able to get anyone to give me a copy of PB4.2, although PB6.0 30-day eval is freely available from Microsoft.

As for real Windows like XP, not a chance. Linux could be possible, but not without a lot of reverse engineering that nobody is willing to devote the time to do.

What operating system does the Z1 use? do Z2 & Z3 run the same? I've been using search, but not having luck.

Yeah, they all run the same OS. Windows Automotive 4.2 which is a stripped down Windows CE.