Well, if you’re really determined to do this — which I wouldn’t recommend to a client, so I don’t recommend it to you — your best alternative is this: buy a new laptop with Windows7 and make sure it has lots of memory. Download VirtualBox (free) and install and run XP in a virtual machine.
Agreed. You get too far behind the 8-ball Allen, and you create more problems than it’s worth.
Do not touch Windows 8 yet! Stay with Windows 7. Most of the bugs are out of it and it “works”.
At this stage in Windows8’s development its almost as goofy a Vista was! Wait a couple of years and they’ll get the bugs out of it.