>I have only one client who has moved to Windows 7 so this purchase would be primarily for research and development of their application. All of the others are staunchly staying with XP 32-bit, but I don't plan to carry 2 laptops around so will definitely have applications that need to run in XP Mode on this machine. Will I need to have install twice--SQL2005 in the 32-bit 'partition' (if that is how it works) and SQL2012 in the 64-bit?
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>Actually new features with Enterprise manager, SMS or whatever it's called this week are what kept me from upgrading for so long. It usually takes hours to figure out where Microsoft has moved a frequently-used feature that used to be at your fingertips. Even when you find it, it doesn't work like it used to, and Microsoft's documentation is seldom helpful. I'm less into toys and more into getting billable work done :-)

Which is why I use SSMS, SMSSM or whatever only when there's nothing else at hand, usually on client machines. For my own use, Toad. Much better, features don't get shuffled around, and most of all, the ones I need are there (like just browsing without having to have a screenful of generated script first, browse sorts by each column, and you can insert, update, delete - a real browse), plus when I'm populating tables, I don't have to go through six clicks just to see the record count - the page refreshes on F5. And it's a freebie (though the paid version has a lot more - but I can live without those features).