Before I started my family history project in 2001 I picked up a free download of BK5.2
I tried many of the other Genealogy software once I got started and didnt find one i liked so stuck with BK5.2
Later I purchased a laptop to add to my desktop and its main function at first was to accompany me on my research trips to libraries and records offices. I took the opportunity to purchase BK6 at the time to get hold of a manual to see what functions in the software i hadnt made use of. I found when I uploaded my GEDCOM form the BK5.2 desktop to the BK6 on the laptop I lost what i considered far too much crucial information. Also i foudn it looked like too many fo the other products I had tried and rejected.
Specifically I make considerable use of the 7 blank text lines per person to record birth death and cnesus details in full. When I export the data to a gedcom and send it to Rootsweb for example that data coopies across intact but when I import that same GEDCOM into BK6 and many other genalogy software it is lost completely. Similarly I had customised the 2 lines for marriage recording and some of the less useful lines on the person records all of which gets lost in a GEDCOM transfer so i much prefer BK5.2 to anything else for recording my raw data.
I am on my 2nd laptop now and it is 6 years old and has ahd a number of faults and repairs leading my wife to worry about it packing up entirely ( ironically it is running better than ever currently as I doubled the RAM at last repair. It runs XP with service pack 2. ( I do have both online and memory stick backup regimes in place as well as copies of the data and program on my wife's desktop also running XP so i am not that vulnerable.
However my wife has just acquired a new laptop free with a mobile phone contract and wants me to have that and her to take over my old laptop. The problem is it runs Vista and wont even allow a lot of old software to install giving some obscure incompatability messages. It is runing Vista with service pack 1 I have heard some horrendous tales of Vista service pack 2 (i am scrupulous about not running Microsoft Updates - they test everything out in the wild and I lost my first laptop to XP service pack 1 whcih disabled all USB ports and apparently the motherboard itself! so where do i stand re BK5.2 on Vista with SP1. Does that include your fix to emulate older windows versions or would I need to upgrade it. Personally i want to stick with my old laptop but the wife is definitely scowling about that!