As we are being corralled into using new MS Operating Systems and development tools, the time will come when we no longer have good old Windows XP on a current machine

This becomes a pain when trying to support VB6/ older sites

I have VB6 IDE loaded on Vista Home Premier and it lets me do everything BUT compile all my software if it contains -

1) Winsock
2) Fax Commands

So basically it is useless - I still need a Windows XP PRO Machine out on site

POSSIBLE SOLUTION

I have set up a Virtual machine using Microsofts Virtual Machine software, with Windows XP Loaded.

The virtual machine is on an external hard drive, so now I can go to any site, or connect to any machine, install the small Virtual machine manager, and suddenly my machine can process anything I have on my Virtual XP Machine

This may be a good solution for some of us developers who are having to support previous versions and even a mix of operating systems

I'll report on the MS Virtual Machine experience as I get more familiar with its possibilities / limitations

This should sort out your VAIO problem Jonny, I would think - you won't need to fight with Vista - just run an XP VM on the VAIO !

One of the great things about MS VM is that you can have any number of virtual machines on your drive, and you get to pick which one you want to run (if any). In addition, the Virtual machine can also see the hard drive of the machine you are running VM on so copying/saving data is no problem.

So, for example, you could have the following Virtual machines - all setup and ready to go on an external drive (if this is what you wanted to do)

- Win98 - VB3
- Win XP - VB6
- Win XP - VS2003
- Win XP - VS2005
- Win XP - VS2008
- Vista Home - VB6 / VS2008
- Vista Business - VS2005
- Vista Ultimate - VS2008
- Linux ??

And all with any combination of MS Office Software

Really opens up the possibilities of testing in a real environment and being able to carry development software with you on-site, and have it run on the client machine, with their data

(Virtually )