Having trouble getting an older piece of software to run in Vista? All is not lost: Vista's compatibility mode may get you back in business with just a few clicks. Here's the trick, as reported by PC Magazine's Cisco Cheng:

Right-click on the program's EXE file and choose Properties. Then click the Compatibility tab, check the box that says Run this program in compatibility mode for, and select the operating system that worked best with the software.

Click OK, then try to run the program. Based on our experiences, it should work. And here's a little-known fact: This feature isn't exclusive to Vista. Windows XP offers a compatibility mode as well. (We can't recall if it was also present in earlier versions of Windows, but we're betting it was.) Definitely worth a try before you run screaming to the IT department about vital software that no longer works.