Hi Dave,
No doubt I will have to upgrade sooner rather than later, and I wasn't aware that you can run Win7 in XP mode, which made me more hopeful that my software will run. Thanks for that info. A friend of mine, who is quite a nerd had a look at WLM with me and I better not quote him in a public Forum :-) We concluded that, if forced, Thunderbird is a more user friendly alternative.
Having said that, another reason I keep procrastinating about is, is that I just don't have the time (and patience) at the moment to go through the pain of reinstalling everything. I just moved, still haven't sorted myself out, so the last thing I need it that! :-)
As for s HD PVR, believe it or not, the reason I still use Toppy 5k, is because I love it, not because I can't afford to replace it. :-) In fact, I just purchased a backup one (second hand, of course) in case my beloved friend dies. I only use MC for the HD channels that the Toppy can't record, (well, that is not entirely true, it can record them, but you can't watch them, without transferring them to the PC) or shows that I intend to keep long term.