Hoping a Lurker has a solution.

[Concillian]

Perhaps a Vista Downgrade?

<snip> The answer is that only one XP Professional license is required in order to activate any number of Vista downgrades. I'm sure there must be some ceiling you can reach at which point they'd stop you, but in my example, the Microsoft representative told me that one XP is good for the five Vista machines I'm going to acquire, and all they'd ask for when I call in is the Vista serial number. <snip>

And it appears Vista can still be purchased.

Wow, they list Vista Ultimate retail for $80. That's cheap. Vista has quite the stigma, but nothing really wrong with it since SP1. Essentially the Win7 codebase without a couple relatively minor features.

Anyone on XP and thinking about an upgrade might consider that. The nice thing about the retail version is that you never have to ask Microsoft to activate it. Change a motherboard or video card, or hard drive? It doesn't care and always activates. The OEM version, you do that stuff it makes you call MS and have them approve that your license is cool. I've heard some people who upgraded motherboard got denied on an OEM version activation, that they consider a motherboard upgrade to be a new computer. No BS like that if you buy the retail.

It's the upgrade version, but there is a pretty easy way to get a clean install with the upgrade version. Google will tell you how, or PM me if you want to know and can't find it.

None of that really helps Shoju, just mentioning for anyone else passing by.