Well ,I had to give up on EAW with XP. I tried the procedures that others had listed, but alas poor EAW, I knew it well.
So I just recently built a new rig, SLi GeForce 8800 GTS 512's and the works Even a Core 2 Extreme x9650 Quadcore @3 Ghz, and 4 gigs of ram. So just for $#!^$ and giggles I put the EAW disk in the computer, and the loadup screen appears, I click the button to install, fully expecting an incompatable with Vista message, when low and behold, the flippin' thing installs without a hitch. No special process required. And my copy of Vista is a 64 bit version.
So I added the patch, and some artfiles to test the game out and it works just fine. The only thing is that occasionally , I still get the alt+n ctd even though the game is patched, but the cool thing is, I have extra squads at 3 in the ini file, and it's as smooth as glass, even with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 on my 28 inch widescreen. And it doesn't distort the picture at that resolution. But the 256 graphics are beginning to show their outdateness. At least I can have fun with this little gem after how many yearsnow, something like 10 years. Goes to show what a good well thought out sim can do for longevity. Even if it did need a patch, and fan additions, which helped to enhance it.
I think BoB II will turn out the same way, as will SH4. Just good games at heart, but fantastic when the community jumps in to improve and enhance it.
_________________________
But sir! Only a fool would fly in this aweful weather!
That's why you're going up with me..........