>XP Mode/Virtual PC feels like a toy in comparison. I also had one client who used it to set up a somewhat involved XP environment on a brand new high-end Dell, only to have it quit working a couple of weeks later and have to redo the whole thing - a support nightmare.

While I also argue for VM's runnable on other/security OS,
stability of VirtualPC is not something I would call bad.

A client of mine works all of the office jobs now with personalized or Job-specific VirtualPC sessions,
having no trouble with stability and only sometimes with performance, when chaining together
some tasks creating PDF output from different sources. Pretty sure it is the job, not VirtualPC
that is slow there. Besides supporting Oracle as backend his is a MS-tools only shop,
and going through one able system operator for all his stuff it makes sense.
people are moved around the office at leisure, connecting either their own laptops
or one of the desktops there. Not the way I would go, but it really works for him.

regards

thomas