Yeah I wasn't trying to downgrade the clients...I originally had the WCG client, then I installed the BOINC client v7 on the same machine. I didn't realize they where two separate clients until after the install.
Once i realized I had em both installed, I removed the newer BOINC client. Some how tho, the original WCG client installed seems to have transfered all its stat history to the newer BOINC client install, and the WCG client started itself a new stat history.
When i removed the BOINC client, it made the original stat history inactive.
So currently I have a working WCG client installed, with stats that only go back to the date of the BOINC client install!
I'm not overly concerned with specific device stats, and it seems that all the stats appear in my personal history, so aside from some lost crunching time [when it dumped work in progress] I haven't lost much as far as stats go.
The question I don't see a reply to...is which client do you guys recommend and why?
Is there something better / unique about the WCG client over the BOINC client when running WCG projects?
Is the BOINC client a better client if you want to run other projects as well?
Does either of these clients have an automated upgrade process [aka you get a pop up 'new version available - click here to install'] like most modern software does?

...truly stable, AND secure!. No corporation/college would run BOINC without that assurance and many a time the chief admin has expanded on the perpetual uphill to convince these potential "partners", to volunteer the spare cycles of their fleet of devices. THe position of WCG is, it's OK to use at individual [private] level, but wont get endorsement until the code audit and sign-off by security is complete.

For good order, boinc.exe [the core client] has internal code that checks if an instance is already running and wont start a second instance. The BOINCMgr in 7 does so too [dont know of 6], but you can force additional BOINCMgr to start by linking them to remote running hosts. Many though prefer the multi-client BOINCTasks manager... it can monitor hundreds of clients simultaneous from 1 host. Installable on Windows/Linux/OS-X (via VM emulator)

P.S. The BOINCmgr menu shortcuts work fine for me on W7 + W8 with 7.0.38 [just tested].

P.P.S. You can set some cc_config.xml <options> parms to check with WCG/IBM to see if there is a new client instead of checking at Berkeley (another partner driven requirement). This in effect will only tell you if a new client is available when WCG has one. The check is about every 14 days.

Mine have disappeared on every machine it has been installed on. I just manually create one. Start menu doesn't even get the BOINC folder that it normally gets.