So I'm wondering if anyone does this. I have Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear that does not work on Windows 7 with an ATI card. Instead of buying a different model video card to switch out every time I want to play the game, I'm thinking of just dual booting with XP.

I know older games sometimes have issues booting, running smoothly, working the way they're supposed to, etc. and was wondering if anyone else does this (thread title). Also, from what I've heard, it doesn't sound like Microsoft (much less any other operating system developer) is interested in developing ways to allow older software to run on their newer platforms.

If this is going to be an on-going issue, why not just keep a seperate/older operating system installed for older game usage? I'm also thinking of using a dedicated hard drive with the older OS. Maybe even an an older video card?

I just run older games through a Virtual Machine, it usually works just as well. Running a virtual machine is a bit systems demanding, but unless you are playing some relatively demanding games, they will usually run at a good speed.

Yes, I actually do have a Linux distro installed for older games amongst other things. I often seem to get much better results getting old game running under Wine than under Win7 for whatever reason :D

I intend to make my next system dual boot Windows 7 Pro and XP Pro. Some games just won't work on 7 and they may be too graphically demanding for a VM.