XP Mode- Dongle Reognition Issues

Install XP on another partition. Install your software that needs the dongle on the real XP partition. Just make sure you back things up with an image backup like Macrium Reflect or another that works on your machine. An external USB drive or docking station is easiest to store the backup image.

You should google some instructions how to add XP to a PC with Windows7 already installed. Once you install XP it will likely only want to boot into XP. You have to find an article that shows how to fix the Windows7 boot manager after you add XP so that you can choose either OS on bootup. Before starting you should have the Windows7 as well as XP install CD/DVD. Otherwise it can be tricky.

VistaBootPro should also be able to fix the Windows7 boot manager to add both OS to the menu. Just make sure the article covers the bit about fixing the boot manager and you have all the discs you need before you start.

edit: before getting too involved it's a good idea to make the boot CD from the image backup program. Boot it, then see if the restore program can see your HD from inside the program. If it can, you should be able to restore the image if you have to without any problem. The issue can come up where the boot CD doesn't have a driver for your particular disk controller. If you can boot and see the HD then your main worry, how to recover from things getting scrambled, is out of the way. Recovery from an image using a boot CD is pretty easy. The restore program is wizard based so you shouldn't be too squeamish about relying on it, as long as you check it out first.

With a docking station you can buy cheap internal Sata drives to stick in the dock instead of expensive external drives. I have a couple and I swap them so I always have a backup not in the PC.

845BobbyC said:

I have recently purchased a new laptop with Windows 7 Professional.
I did this with the expectation that the Windows XP Mode would still run my older Business Software (as advertised). I thought this was an ingenious idea. I am having difficultly however with one of my main business software that needs to use a protection license device (dongle) to gain access to the software. The dongle is not recognized while in XP Mode.
Any one have any advice?

Try Installing and then Enabling Integrations Features (under Tools in the top menu), then see if it works. It should allow for USB passthrough.