Quote - I've got the UAC completely off.  The XP Mode sounds like a promising thing to try, but of course I have the baseline OS so it's not available to me. mrfrrmrgrumblemicrosoft

Not "XP Mode" (the virtual XP in higher editions of  Win7) but one of "XP Compatability Mode", "Win2K Compatability Mode", or "Win98 Compatability Mode" which you can set for an EXE file by right clicking and choosing "Properties..."