In BS, since I don't think many will find it of immediate interest and it doesn't relate to anything much one can do now.

One of the main reasons for avoiding Vista has been the inability to run perfectly good programs and use hardware peripherals that weren't supported for Vista.

If you have switched to Vista but have some of that sort of stuff still around, there may be some hope that the coming Windows 7 will let you return to using the good stuff instead of the new hardware you bought to replace it.

Microsoft reveals Windows 7 'XP mode'

Run XP apps in Win 7 using virtual machine
Gregg Keizer
April 27, 2009

The option implied in the headline is slightly wrong, but an "add on" allows you to open a "Virtual XP" machine and install programs that ran in XP. Once the programs are installed using the WinXP Virtual Machine, they'll be "ported to Windows 7" and (Microsoft promises so you know it's true) they will run in Windows 7.

It is noted that the add on will be available only for the three most expensive versions of Windows 7, so if you might consider the new OS it could be very important to be sure that you get a version supporting this feature - if in fact the feature ends up being released. With Microsoft's proclivity for changing names and content in versions of their stuff, careful checking at the time of purchase should be considered critical.

I note that the article uses "programs" consistently, which leaves some ambiguity about whether hardware drivers will be portable by the same method. Our major lossage with Vista was "our best platform scanner" which simply can't be used with Vista, and our "large format printer" that has to use a substitute driver from a different printer that doesn't quite provide all the features available under XP.

The article linked above gives links to blogs where supposedly credible Microsoft (oxymoron?) agents have described the add on. I'm sure I've got a year or two to look for the rest of the story, so I'll read the originals later.

John