I just went thru this exact (almost) procedure, getting my new Vista desktop to network with our Win xp computer with printer. Not so easy, but here are the instructions which work: 1. To set up the house network, on the Vista computer: Start-Control Panel-System and Maintaint.- system-computer name,domain,workgroup settings area on the screen, hit the "change settings" button, then system properties-computer name tab-change computer name/domain changes-in Workgroup type your home network's name-OK. Then to set up the printer, a huge pain, but doable: On the Vista computer: Start-Control Panel-add printer-add Local Printer (I know it's on a network, but this is the way to do it)-create a new port-default is "local port",leave it-next you have to enter a port name, this is the tricky part, you have to type in the path to the printer manually, the path should look like: \\your exact host computer name\your exact printer's sharing name. That's it. To check for the exact host computer name, go to the host computer, my computer, and a screen will come up with it's official name, use it, case sensitive. For printer name, go to host computer, printers area thru the control panel, rt. click the printer and properties. A sharing tab will show, click it, the exact name for the shared printer will show, again use it case sensitive. The above took me all day when I got my new Vista, hope it helps.

the one thing I did immediately with my husbands new laptop that has 7 on it is change everything on it to classic view so that it looks more familiar which has helped me a lot. Now I am not sure those options are available to you since on starter version you can not even change your desktop wallpaper. I did some googling for how to make windows 7 like xp and found a lot of good tricks that helped me.

Hi zep, I have a desktop that has Windows 7 on it, a laptop with Vista,Husband's computer is Windows Vista, Daughter has a wireless laptop with Vista and a wireless netbook with XP and they are all in the HomeGroup. So I guess I am all up to date with all of the networking in this house.

MS Office '97-'03 should install just fine on Vista. My Office 2000 version did. So, maybe if you have an old version of office, you could install that, then use the XP upgrade Office disk. If PhotoShop 6 will install and is compatible with Vista, then you could install it and use the PhotoShop CS upgrade disk. I guess you'll just have to try and see what happens. Vista will let you know if anything is not compatible during the install.