Marlon - He must have got it before the upgrade as they shouldent have sold you 8.5 as its outdated.

If I was you I would have got 2008, theres no difference in price and even if you dont use the new tools in it, its still inherently faster and multi core supported when running simulations, which when you upgrade to your new PC will be faster.

Jr Who - You need to locate the MayaRes.dll and then use a resource edting programme to get to the file, not too sure what it would be on the MAC though.