Ugggh my excitement about downloading X2 this weekend was quelled by learning - if I am correct, that I have to have Windows 7 for it..... Ok MS here I come.

Windows 8 out next week.

According to this...

Windows 8 will not be available until October 26th...

http://promotions.newegg.com/Software/12-3502/index.html?cm_sp=Homepage_toprightV1-_-Software/12-3502/1234-_-http%3a%2f%2fpromotions.newegg.com%2fSoftware%2f12-3502%2f269x120.jpg

If you're still using XP or Vista, you're missing out. 

I need to step everything up a notch. So in the long run, should I just wait until 8 is out, get it then download X2 with the 8 patch

You may want to wait foro Windows 8 unless you want to buy Windows 7 now and then go to 8 later. Windows 7 will cost you $100, but Windows 8 is initially going to only cost $39, I believe.      

For one thing, if you're still running XP, you cannot upgrade to Windows 7 or 8 in place. That means you need to backup, reformat your disk, install Windows 8, and then reinstall all of your applications and then restore the data from the backup. 

What I did when I upgraded to Windows 7 was to buy a new disk drive and installed Windows 7 on it and then installed all my apps and copied the data from the old drive. That way if I had problems with Windows 7, I could still boot from my XP drive. I didn't have any problems and so eventually I reformatted the old XP drive and used it as an additional drive.  

I have Vista - so how would that play into all this upgrade