I tried Windows Vista and realized that it seriously slowed down all my 3D apps, so I ditched it and reinstalled Windows XP.  After a days worth of reinstalling programs, everything works EXCEPT for Poser!!!   I reinstalled Poser 7 three times and everytime I try to open it, I get the Windows error message "Program needs to close - Error".
Poser will get about 20 seconds into the startup screen and then crash.  I also had Poser 5 and 6 installed and they all do the same exact thing!   I really can't figure this one out.

Some clues as to what is happening:  Poser did initially run after I reinstalled, but when I tried to open some existing files I would have to manually search the runtimes for files because the Drive Letter changed after the reinstall of Windows.   Then when I tried to resave a Poser file, the file would end up being BLANK, with a file size of zero!  

So then I tried using Dimension3D's Runtime Repair (which seemed to be repairing the path references) and that's when Poser completely stopped working!
I'm not saying that Runtime Repair is the problem, I think it just might have made worse an existing situation.

Thanks for any help!!!!

Did you remember to reinstall the latest drivers for your video card ?

Do you have the downloaded installer or a CD. If you have the downloaded installer i would redownload poser 7 it may have been corrupted  with the install of Vista. Also make sure you install all of Win XPs updates,including SP2

Thanks for your suggestions:
Problem solved!  I uninstalled Vista and reinstalled XP.  It was slowing down Carrara, Vue and anything else that used OpenGL.   Anybody want to buy a used copy of Vista?  (just kidding - I'm going to use the disc as a very expensive coaster)

Just FYI, I used "Dr Hardware", a hardware monitoring device, it benchmarks your machine and compares it to other similar systems.  With Vista, running my graphics was compared to a Pentium 2 machine.  When I put back XP, it was right back where it belonged, P4 with 2 gigs of RAM.   Did I mention I HATE WINDOWS VISTA!

I dont have a problem with slowness and i use Carrara,Poser i have a P4 3.40Ghz w hyperthreading and 2 gigs of ram. I have a Nvida 7800GS Vid card and i am using the current beta drivers.

I had the highest score 5.9 for graphics and overall a 4.3. I do have some problems with poser 7 but i had problems with 7 before i moved to Vista Ultimate. I also get, this program is not compatable with aero but it just shuts it off for the program, its PSP 8 and Corel PSp XI but i have stardock window blinds and the same 2 programs i had to exclude from the themes.

I like Vista Ultimate, sure it has bugs but i dont remember one microsoft OS release that didnt have bugs or anyother OS for that matter. Over all for my system its pretty darn stable. :)