Remote Differential Compression was disabled - I disabled it myself, one of the first things I did to try and solve the issue. It had no effect. I also verified yesterday afternoon that indeed it was running SP1 and updates were "up to date."

Finding RDC is what prompted me to ridicule the whole of MS's new control panel layout/methodology. It's hideous, even through navigating the basic settings.

I think the bottom line is being illustrated very well through MS's new commercials. If you're shopping for a Suzuki Swift or Yugo (HP machines), you shouldn't be looking at the BMW dealership (Apple Stores). They may both consume gasoline, but that's where the similarity ends.

I do have XP running under virtualization right now on my Mac (very infrequent use), so I can easily give Windows 7 a shot. Personally I just can't come up with any reason to though. My virtual XP already has IE8 running on it which is one of the things I need the quick copy of Windows for - web testing.