Well
!
I have just installed the thing on the new über laptop which I am currently using (Vista again)- I connected the kit, Windows downloaded a generic driver I think (USB MIDI DRUMS). I then installed the SW which came with the kit and, as with the desktop, everything is recognised and works.
So- The software with the kit is definitely for XP and Vista, but on the XP laptop the SW doesn't recognise the kit- The same (generic?) driver shows up on the XP laptop and says it?s working fine...
I'm NOT giving my mew lappy to my son
This tells me that you may be missing a driver, or that the driver you get from the CD isn't working properly.
Basically, Vista (a later OS) is auto-detecting the hardware and installing it's own driver (the midi drums one), and then the software works on top of that driver.
XP doesn't seem to have access to the same driver, and as such it might either be trying to use an inferior XP driver from the CD or just not even installing anything. The latter issue here will be highlighted in Device Manager, but the former issue will be harder to troubleshoot as it would manifest itself as a "working" driver which doesn't in fact work.
Another useful exercise you could do is to find another XP machine with which you can install the software and then the hardware, and see whether it works.....as that would give you a working system based on XP which would allow you to know what works and how it works.