Hi Mark,
You quoted "He said that Microsoft really got it "right" this time and that older software that worked in XP will work in Windows 7"
Well, that statement just is not true

As I said in my previous post, I use several programs which work OK on XP but will not run on Windows 7. I believe that Windows 7 is a big improvement on Vista (Disaster!) but then any OS would be better than Vista

Your 'Boot-up' problem with your PC may not be directly related to Windows XP - could be hardware related or even your BIOS........