Q -

Based on Microsoft error messages that continually/repeatedly tell me that I should upgrade to Office 2007 on my WinXP machines, at least they appear to believe that Office 2007 will run on WinXP with no problems.

As commented above, I'm unimpressed by what they've done to Office 2007.

Be very careful though that you check out which of the individual Office programs are contained in the version you get.

My Office Business, for example, did not include Access, even though the description at the computer builder's site indicated that it did. It's not likely that I'd have used it much, but if I'd wanted it I'd have been mildly screwed, at least.

Check the Microsoft site for what's in the version you intend to get, and be very careful about version numbers, since the mix of programs in the various packages (and even the names of the packages) has varied a lot between Office 2000, Office XP, through Office 2007.

John