Hello Folks,

Ok, it is all over for xpsp3.  It's a freaking miracle that I got this far on xpsp3.  When I built my desktop I tried to future proof it the best I knew.  MS utility says it will run win7 sp1 professional - which I have here as original OEM from MS.  What do you do for an email client and any chance of saving vast email and addresses from Outlook Express. Will be saying goodbye to professional double sided printer from HP and a great flat bed scanner. Also saying good bye to a s*** ton of programs and games. Backups have been made of most things data. Have new 1tb Western digital black and have 8 gb ddr2 that will work.  The big question, is there a way to fresh install win 7 in an XP emulation mode, or have access to an emulation mode. I'm trying to save what I can data and program wise. I am not a luddite - it's just that ME, Vista, 8 and 10 just don't get it for me.  I guess eventually something in Linux will have to do.  Ages ago I used to run Berkeley Unix on a Silicon Graphics for Wavefront.  But I am older now and have forgotten much.  If there is anyone out there that can shed light on any aspect of this you will have my eternal gratitude. Thank you so much in advance!!!

A guy named Mac 

When you say XP Emulation mode, do you mean the "XP Mode" virtual machine?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh859554.aspx

When I upgraded to Windows 7, I just basically put a blank hard drive into my XP computer and then installed Win7 on it. I still have full access to the other disks that were in my XP computer, and even most programs can be run from those old installations! Microsoft Office need not apply, however.

For an email client, I can only recommend Mozilla Thunderbird, but it can have difficulties with some MS Exchange configurations.