Trying to emulate XP in W7 produced nothing, I got the impression that I needed to download an add-on for this function. Is this in fact, true?
Providing you are running Pro or ultimate (the RC is ultimate) then you can download XP virtual M/C from:
Windows Virtual PC: Home Page
This runs XP as a virtual M/C inside W7, works well too as I use it for some radio decoding software that wont run under 7