I am new to Vista. My daughter has had it on a laptop for a year with no problems, though. I wanted lots of RAM, so I went with Vista 64.

On the older OSs, boot order was set in BIOS. I need to check but Vista 64 may use a different process. I think you could install Vista on one HD and XP on another and set boot order to go to the drive with the OS you want first. So...in normal Vista boot, change boot order and reboot. After running legacy software, reverse procedure.

Yeah, it's crazy enough to work -- but it wouldn't be fun.

I think the current machine will run a few more years, though I am handing it over to the kids for MySpace, Rhapsody, and maybe a little homework.

A network is one possibility -- for the next year or two, at least. But I would rather see those yield maps on a bigger monitor!