1 - regarding the X-keys:

I haven't tried any sort of hardware mode, but on software mode like I used to use them on Win XP, it doesn't work exactly right.

Normal key-presses work fine, but control/shift/alt+key presses do not.

So if I bind control-F1 to a key and press it, nothing happens, but follow the exact same steps and bind just F1, and it works fine.

I suppose it's possible that it's Win7+Octopus+Xkeys that does this, not just Win7+Xkeys, but I need Octopus far more than I need to have control-F1 mapped to a key.