If you consider using XP Mode, then I recommend watching this video. This video contains a good tutorial on how to install and configure XP mode including a lot of additional hints. Furthermore the video explains how to create a customized XP Mode VHD for deployment on multiple clients.
The video can be downloaded from here
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[...] you have watched the Windows XP Mode IT Pro Deployment Video, you might be interested in the scripts they’ve used to automatically install XP Mode and create [...]