Well I bit the bullet and bought the download for Win 8 to make a dual boot with XP. MS dont make it easy because they wont let you download the iso in XP. So I set up a Win 7 preview partition so I could get the iso to perform a clean install.
My main concern was transfering all my email archive over. I had to set up windows Mail in XP, import from Outlook Express then move the windows mail folder over to the Windows 8 partition after Setting up Windows Live Mail 2012 in Win 8. This worked well as I didnt want to start editing reg files for all my rules. Again MS dont make anything easy.
Having said all that I find Win 8 much faster to use and intuitive. I did download Pokki Start Menu (free) and boot to the desktop, but I do find myself Hot cornering to the Start page more and more as its really easy to use with the left and right mouse wheel scroll.
I dont like some of the Apps eg Windows Mail, full screen, and no support for pop3. I like to have a few windows open at once and keep an eye on them on the desktop.
I have also got some of my old 1998 apps to work like Wordperfect 10, which works better in Win 8 than XP which it was designed for in XP mode. Also if I need an XP to run in native XP mode I have downloaded VMlite and the XP mode from Virtual PC website for Win 7. This runs well and hides the main window while XP apps run in a little green box on the screen after VMlite has converted the download. So far I havent needed it. I was going to transfer my mail store from XP to VMlite XP and run Outlook Express 6 in a window but I decided to bite the bullet and import my Mail to WLM.
Also Windows 7 File recovery is nice. It has created copies of my Documents after I moved the folder and two system images, XP and Win 8. Havent tested the restore process but have read the articles on it and it seems to go smoothly according to some forums.
Any tips here for Win 8 feel free to pinch.
cheers
Tim