FWIW, I was able to compile and use the "HardwareTemplate" HW Interface from the HB SDK in VSE C++ 2008! It compiled with only a few warnings and no errors. All of the warnings were for some depreciated statements. I built the DLL and stuck it in the HB plugins directory and the 'new' HW interface showed up and worked in HB!
This just might give me the blind enthusiasm to attempt a HW interface and some devices for 1-wire support. We'll see.
I have to say, the 2008 editions of VSE are really nice. The new version of C++ includes by default the win32 SDK which was a pain to install and get working correctly on VSE 2005.
Terry