Break Through...
Firestorm and I have playtested XP Host to a Win7 guest... with Success!
We also connected a Windows 7 Host to an XP guest and it worked also.
It seems that I was right about the MASTERETOSTARTUP.bat being the culprit afterall.
What I did was :
Create a new .exe named CFS3etoWin7.exe with the Compatibility (to XP SP2) and Priviledge Level as Administrator by copying the old one, etc.
Place it into the ETO 1.2 Expansion's Main Folder
Then I made a new MASTERETOSTARTUP.bat, named MASTERETOSTARTUPwin7.bat with the same properties settings adjusted as stated above.
Next part, is where I think the problem was, is to edit the last line* of that .bat file, to re-direct it to the new Start Up .exe I created.
@ECHO OFF
CLS
CALL ETOEraSwapper.bat
CD "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\CFS3 ETO Expansion\global_layer"
CALL ETOGLSwapper.bat
START cfs3etoWin7.exe <-------------------------------<<*******************************************************
Then I placed that new .bat file into ETO 1.20 Expansion Main Folder
Then I created a shortcut to my new MASTERETOSTARTUPwin7.bat by right clicking it and select Send To Desktop (create shortcut).
So it's ugly little icon sits on my desktop, however using it does initiate the Era Swapper and also starts up the ETO game correctly, so...
Windows XP can host ETO for a Windows 7 user, and vice-versa, for multiplayer gaming.
At least we were able to do so using this technique. Hopefully someone with a better understanding of ETO, Windows 7, and whatever else can make use of this information and proof it for what is essential and whatnot to do. I just hit alot of buttons till something worked, lol, jk...